Gachagua Explains Why He Missed Raila Odinga’s State Funeral
He accused President Ruto and other leaders of feigning to praise Raila when they had openly criticized him in the past.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua speaking on Citizen TV's The Explainer show. PHOTO| CITIZEN DIGITAL
By Ruth Sang
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said he did not attend the State funeral and burial of the late Raila Odinga, citing what he termed serious security concerns. Speaking during an interview aired on iNooro TV on Sunday, Gachagua said that as much as he respected the former Prime Minister whom he had already honoured, he chose to stay away after receiving warnings about alleged threats to his life.
Gachagua said that he treated Raila as an important figure in the country, highlighting his consistency in politics and providing leadership to the ODM. He added that he admired Raila’s resilience and the robust party he had built, hoping to shape his own party, the DCP, on the lines of ODM.
“I respect Raila as an important State leader,” he said. “For twenty years, ODM has remained a strong political outfit, and I would like to build DCP into a party even stronger than ODM. I also admire the way Raila selected experienced leaders to represent his party.”
However, Gachagua claimed that despite his intention to attend the national service at Nyayo Stadium, he was advised against it due to a plot allegedly orchestrated by some government individuals. He repeated several accusations he has leveled before, saying government-linked operatives had attempted to target him on several occasions.
“The government had sent people to Limuru to kill me, and they have never been arrested. In April, Ruto himself sent hitmen to kill me at PCA Mwiki. When I returned from the USA, I was assaulted by hired thugs and police officers in plain clothes,” he alleged.
According to Gachagua, some of the officers personally warned him that the same pattern was going to be repeated at the funeral. He said he was warned that the attack would be staged in a manner to ensure that blame would fall on people from Nyanza and likely trigger tensions between the Gikuyu and Luo communities. “Police officers told me that it would be dangerous to attend because government agents planned to use civilians to attack me and claim it was done by people from Nyanza,” said the DCP leader. “They wanted to incite hostility between our communities.” He also cancelled a scheduled visit to Bondo, claiming there was another plan to target him during that trip. Gachagua insisted that he was fully conversant with the way the current administration operates and refused to be drawn into what he believes were attempts at manufacturing ethnic conflict. “I said I would go to Bondo, but the same arrangements had been made. I know President Ruto’s administration very well, and I could not allow myself to walk into that trap,” he added. Gachagua added that other than the alleged threats, he felt the funeral proceedings were full of hypocrisy. He accused President Ruto and other leaders of feigning to praise Raila when they had openly criticized him in the past. The only one who was sincere, according to him, was Kalonzo Musyoka, who for many years was a close partner with Raila. “Even without the threats, the lies spoken there made it impossible for me to attend. Ruto was pretending that Raila was a great person and shedding tears, yet he used to call Raila a witch and blame him for the country’s problems,” he claimed.
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