NAIROBI Kenya, Feb 12 – Deputy President Righathi Gachagua has assured that the Kenya Kwanza government is not vengeful despite the persecution they went through under the past regime.
Gachagua said many leaders including the president, himself were ‘persecuted’ by the regime of former President Uhuru Kenyatta but they will not revenge.
“As the Kenya Kwanza government, we are not interested at all in revenge because those people had might power, they had police with them, the Defense power with them, they had money but God chose president Ruto with his poor background to lead Kenya,” he said.
Ruto won the August 2022 election, defeating Opposition chief Raila Odinga who had the support of the establishment.
Several ministers and officials in Kenyatta’s government, including Fred Matiangi (Interior), Joe Mucheru (ICT), Mutahi Kagwe (Health) and others publicly campaigned for Odinga, sometimes engaging in verbal attacks with Ruto whom they vowed to defeat.
Just last week, Matiangi claimed that police had raided his home over unknown reasons, but authorities challenged him to prove to Kenyans, accusing him of stage-managing the raid.
The Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Amin Mohamed later issued a statement confirming that Matiangi was under investigation on several cases but had not been called to record a statement.
Following Matiangi’s claims on a police raid, politicians including Opposition chief Odinga accused the Ruto administration of unfairly targetting officials who served in Uhuru’s regime.
They cited Ruto and Gachagua’s remarks and sustained government for everyone to pay taxes, which was interpreted to be an attack on Kenyatta and other influential individuals.
“Even the law you want us to implement to arrest people, especially to those who tormented us, our president will not even accept that,” Gachagua said.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said Ruto will not be vengeful instead he is keen on fulfilling his pledges under the Kenya Kwanza manifesto to Kenyans.
“I want to tell Kenyans that the President did not win by selling revenge. He sold an agenda to transform this country,” he said.
But the message was different from former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko who asked President Ruto to fire his predecessor from the special envoy role “because he is disrespecting you.”
“Because you are a forgiving person you gave him (Uhuru) a job as a DRC peace envoy. If he (Uhuru) continues disrespecting you, fire him,” Sonko said.
He took a swipe to Kenyatta and Azimio leader Raila Odinga for continuously criticizing the current administration since they got into power saying they will not tolerate any form of disrespect.
“The church advises us against revenge but, sometimes, revenge is a good lesson,” he said.
Sonko further asked the president to reconsider repealing the law to jail those who “disrespect him just like what happened to South Africa’s Jacob Zuma,”
