NAIROBI, Kenya June 28 \u2013 Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has dismissed claims that he financed or organised the violent protests that rocked parts of the country on June 25, questioning why he hasn\u2019t been arrested if the state truly believes he is culpable.<\/p>\n
Speaking in a televised interview on Thursday evening, Gachagua described the allegations as part of a political witch-hunt aimed at tainting his name and diverting attention from government failures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I truly financed goons, if I am responsible for that chaos, why haven\u2019t they arrested me?\u201d he posed. \u201cIf there was intelligence that Gachagua sponsored thugs, what are the police waiting for? Arrest me!\u201d<\/p>\n
His remarks came hours after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen characterised the Gen Z-led protests as an \u201cattempted coup,\u201d claiming that the demonstrations were a well-funded, politically motivated operation aimed at overthrowing the government.<\/p>\n
Murkomen alleged that demonstrators had targeted key government installations including Parliament, State House, and police stations, adding that there was evidence of coordination and planning that pointed to top-level instigation.<\/p>\n
But Gachagua rubbished the narrative, arguing that if the chaos witnessed on Wednesday was truly orchestrated by him, the outcome would have been far more dramatic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf those were my goons, they would be either dead or already in custody,\u201d he said, adding that the entire operation appeared \u201cstage-managed to criminalise dissent and silence critics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gachagua went further to accuse the government of deliberately allowing looting to occur in Nairobi\u2019s CBD as a way to delegitimise peaceful protests and paint the opposition in a negative light.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that there was a plot to block protesters on Kiambu and Thika Roads while letting goons loot downtown Nairobi. That chaos was state-sponsored,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also claimed that businesses belonging to individuals from specific communities were targeted for destruction and looting \u2014 a move he says amounts to ethnic profiling and political intimidation.<\/p>\n
The former DP accused the Nairobi County government of complicity, alleging that some of its officials helped identify which businesses would be attacked.<\/p>\n
Gachagua also questioned the narrative of protesters storming police stations to steal firearms, saying such acts could not have been accomplished without internal complicity or staged motives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government is scapegoating the youth instead of listening to their legitimate concerns. This generation wants answers on corruption, jobs, and governance, not bullets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
President William Ruto, in his Thursday address, condemned the violence, describing it as \u201canarchy disguised as democracy\u201d and directed the police to identify and prosecute the planners and financiers. He also warned that seeking power through violence rather than elections would not be tolerated.<\/p>\n
Gachagua, however, said the state must stop using brute force and propaganda to suppress dissent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is no longer about me or anyone else. It is about the soul of this nation. You cannot shoot your way out of responsibility,\u201d he said, as he announced that he had cancelled all public engagements in solidarity with the victims.<\/p>\n
Amnesty International placed the death toll from Wednesday\u2019s protests at 16, with over 400 injured \u2014 most of them from police gunfire.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NAIROBI, Kenya June 28 \u2013 Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has dismissed claims that he financed or organised the violent protests that rocked parts of the country on June 25, questioning why he hasn\u2019t been arrested if the state truly believes he is culpable. Speaking in a televised interview on Thursday evening, Gachagua described the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}