The rise and fall of Kenya’s second deputy president Rigathi Gachagua

On September 13, 2022, Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua made promises to the nation while being sworn in as the second deputy president of Kenya.

He vowed to work closely with President William Ruto, with whom he campaigned as a running mate in the August 2022 general elections, to ensure that the government's promises of development and fighting corruption would be achieved.

However, just 25 months later, Gachagua became the first deputy president to be impeached.

Born Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua in 1965 in Mathira Constituency, in what is now Nyeri County, Gachagua's life has been a roller coaster.

He is the eighth-born child of Nashashon Gachagua Reriani and Martha Kirigo. He is the younger brother of the first governor of Nyeri, the late James Nderitu Gachagua.

He is married to Pastor Dorcas Wanjiku, and they have two children.

Gachagua spent five years as former president Uhuru Kenyatta's personal assistant in the early 2000s, working for him during the last years of the Kanu regime.

He first tasted power when he was appointed the assistant secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Heritage.

District officer

Earlier, Gachagua underwent paramilitary training at the Administration Police Institute, preparing him for a career in government.

He left the ministry in 1990 after being recruited as a cadet district officer and was later transferred to the office of the Head of Civil Service, where he worked as a personal assistant.

In 1995, he was named the district officer in charge of Kakamega before moving to Ng’arua in Laikipia in 1997.

He graduated from the University of Nairobi (UoN) in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and literature.

At UoN, Gachagua was the Nyeri University Students Association leader and chairman of the Association of Literature Students.

In 1999, Gachagua attended the Kenya School of Government, studying Advanced Public Administration.

His first formal employment was a low-cadre job as assistant secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Heritage in former President Daniel Moi's regime.

Gachagua held this position from 1989 to 1990, then moved into the Office of the President as a district officer cadet until 1991.

He stayed there until 1999, serving as personal assistant to the Head of Public Service from 1991 to 1993 and as district officer in Kakamega and Laikipia.

During the deputy presidential debate on July 26, 2022, ahead of the general elections, Gachagua stated there is almost no place he hasn't visited.

Ventured into business

After spending 10 years in public service, he quit and ventured into business, registering his first firm, Ridor Group of Companies.

In 2001, former president Uhuru Kenyatta, then Minister for Local Government, hired Gachagua to support his work in his office.

He was Kenyatta's PA during the 2002 general election, which Kenyatta lost to Mwai Kibaki despite being handpicked as heir by Moi.

In 2006, Gachagua began working with his elder brother, the late Nderitu Gachagua, who was then Mathira MP and who was later elected as Nyeri's first governor in 2013.

Gachagua said in a past interview that he fell out with Uhuru when he asked the former president to help process payment for a campaigner who had supplied items to the government.

"When he was a minister at Jogoo House, there was one campaigner who kept asking for money, and he (the campaigner) requested me to ask Uhuru to make some calls so he could be paid for a job he had done for the government," he said.

The campaigner told Gachagua that if he received the cash, he would be able to campaign without coming to Uhuru for money.

The former DP thought that was a good idea, but "when I proposed it to my boss, he chased me out of his office like an offensive dog," he recalled.

Mathira MP

Gachagua came into prominence after his brother's death as he took up the political leadership of the family.

He won the Mathira MP’s seat on a Jubilee Party ticket in 2017.

In the 2022 general election, he was chosen as Ruto's presidential running mate in a stiff competition that pitted him against prominent figures such as Public Service and Human Capital Development Cabinet Secretary (CS) Justin Muturi, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru, Lands CS Alice Wahome, and Interior CS Kithure Kindiki.

However, it is no longer a secret that the former Mathira MP, and now impeached deputy president, was not the overwhelming choice by the Kenya Kwanza political leaders, with Kindiki being the favoured one.

Barely six months into his term as deputy president, Gachagua declared himself the guardian of the State House.

He took it upon himself to ensure that those who did not support Kenya Kwanza were kept out of important government positions.

Government shareholding

His role was to decide who would get what in terms of government jobs.

Gachagua described the new government as a “company of shareholders”, where some Kenyans are major shareholders while others have no shares, possibly echoing his boss's sentiments.

He openly stated that government appointments and contracts were mainly for those who voted for the ruling party, with little consideration for opposition members.

"Your (opposition) time to reap will come one day on what is left after those who sowed have finished reaping," Gachagua said speech in Kericho in February 2023.

"You have invested in this government and you must reap. You have sown, tilled, fertilised, and irrigated, and now it is time to reap," he told Kenya Kwanza supporters.

These are some of the remarks that landed him in trouble and contributed to the end of his political career through impeachment.

On Thursday, October 17, 2024, the Senate resolved to impeach Gachagua following a two-day hearing that entailed volumes of evidence and hours of cross-examination.

Gachagua, who is currently admitted to the Karen Hospital, was ousted after senators voted in favour of five out of the 11 grounds presented for his removal.

With Gachagua's political future at stake since impeachment renders a state official ineligible for future elections, his lawyers are expected to file an appeal in court, promising Kenyans an extraordinary legal drama.