Police Officers during protests on Wednesday, June 25. Photo: Reuters.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has dismissed claims by the Kenya Kwanza Government that he funded the June 25 anniversary protests of Gen Zs killed during 2024 Anti-Finance Bill Protests.
Speaking during an interview on Friday, Gachagua claimed that if the government believed that he sponsored the violence, they would have arrested him already.
According to Gachagua, the allegations by the government are a political manhunt against to him, so that Kenyans can stop focusing on the failures of the government and focus on him, a move he said will not succeed.
“If I truly financed goons, if I am responsible for that chaos, why haven’t they arrested me? If there was intelligence that Gachagua sponsored thugs, what are the police waiting for? Arrest me!” Gachagua remarked.
His remarks coming hours after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen called the Gen Z protests as an attempted coup, as the Wednesday, June 25 protests were a well-funded, politically motivated operation, aimed at overthrowing the government.
Murkomen in his address claimed that the protesters targeted government office and institutions, as well as business premises of specified individuals. Gachagua claimed that the government had planned and allowed goons to loot shops and businesses in Nairobi, after peaceful protesters were blocked at Thika Road to access CBD.
However Gachagua refuted the claims, stating that the government planned out the goons, to put the blame on Gen Zs and criminalize them. According to Gachagua, if the goons were hired by him, they could be already dead or arrested.
“If those were my goons, they would be either dead or already in custody. We 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,” he remarked.
President William Ruto condemned the violence witnessed as an act of anarchy disguised as democracy, and called on the police to identify and apprehend the funders of the protest and the criminals. He told off his supporters that power is not acquired through violence but persuading people with what they stand for.
However, Gachagua called on the government to stop using brute force and propaganda to suppress dissent voices.
“This is no longer about me or anyone else. It is about the soul of this nation. You cannot shoot your way out of responsibility,” he said.
Gachagua also disclosed cancellation of his tour in Embu County, in solidarity with the victims of last year police brutality at Parliament.
