{"id":130840,"date":"2026-02-12T13:02:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/ruto-attacks-gachagua-as-petty-thief-over-relief-food\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:02:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:02:59","slug":"ruto-attacks-gachagua-as-petty-thief-over-relief-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/ruto-attacks-gachagua-as-petty-thief-over-relief-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruto attacks Gachagua as \u2018petty thief\u2019 over relief food"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 12 \u2013 President William Ruto on Thursday sustained his attacks on his former deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, calling him a \u201cpetty thief\u201d and accusing him of lacking the moral authority to speak about drought, hunger and relief food.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during the disbursement of start-up capital under the NYOTA (National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement) programme in Mandera County, President Ruto dismissed criticism from leaders he said had a questionable past, clearly pointing to Gachagua.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have seen some people trying to lecture us on matters of relief food and drought,\u201d Ruto said. \u201cThe person shouting the loudest today is the least qualified to talk about food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The President went on to accuse Gachagua of being fired from public service in the past over alleged theft of relief food meant for hungry Kenyans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know your record. You were fired from your job because you were stealing relief food. You are a petty thief,\u201d Ruto said, drawing loud reactions from the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>President Ruto said someone with such a past has no moral authority to lecture the government on the welfare of Kenyans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou cannot lecture anyone in this country about helping the poor when you were busy looting food meant for the hungry,\u201d he added. \u201cPlease give us a break.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The President insisted that his administration has a clear plan to deal with drought and food insecurity, especially in vulnerable regions such as Northern Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a plan, we have a programme, and we are working for the people of Kenya. We do not need lectures from people whose only record is theft and misuse of public resources,\u201d Ruto said.<\/p>\n<p>Gachagua has been increasingly vocal in his criticism of the Ruto administration, particularly on issues of drought response, relief food distribution and development in marginalised areas.<\/p>\n<p>He has accused the government of neglecting the Northern region and called for the ongoing drought to be declared a national disaster.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 12 \u2013 President William Ruto on Thursday sustained his attacks on his former deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, calling him a \u201cpetty thief\u201d and accusing him of lacking the moral authority to speak about drought, hunger and relief food. Speaking during the disbursement of start-up capital under the NYOTA (National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement) [&hellip;]<\/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-130840","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\/130840","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=130840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}