Don’t take Kenya back to ICC, Gachagua tells President Ruto

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Sunday, January 12, 2025, warned the government against taking Kenya back to the International Criminals Court through the civil-strife route.

Mr Gachagua, while worshiping at Dandora AIPCA Church in Nairobi County, said he feared that abductions, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings had the risk of plunging the country into chaos similar to that of 2007-2008 post-election violence.

“Coupled with open and bold hate speech replete with full impunity where senior government officials are recorded presiding over meetings that propose ethnic segregation are telltale signs of a ticking time bomb," he said.

Mr Gachagua called on President Ruto to tame his allies whom he said were inciting and preaching divisions along tribal and regional lines.

“The government has also been incriminated prominently by its self-declared gang-like supporters of harbouring political projects that can cause bloodshed. We will document all the hate speech utterances emitted by government sympathisers in counties like Lamu where a Cabinet Secretary was recently the convener".

"I want to remind President Ruto that he was on the painful journey through ICC together with five other Kenyans...the route some of your loyalists are taking you risks taking this country back to that international court".

"We have assembled a team of lawyers wired to ICC... We will have all criminals against humanity back to ICC", he said.

Mr Gachagua also claimed that the existing vacuum in the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was deliberately purposed to work out political emotions to force a state of emergency.

"It is for that purpose that we, as part of the people's voice in the risk we are facing as a country, call upon the international community as well as the ICC to keep their eyes fixed on the building up tension in the country," he said.

CS Muturi condemns abductions, demands answers over son's ordeal

Mr Gachagua said he hoped US President-elect Donald Trump would train his guns on Nairobi upon assuming office in a week.

"The absence of IEBC (Independence Electorate and Boundaries Commission) is a pointer to what is being planned ahead of 2027. We want the international community to apply pressure on President Ruto to constitute IEBC. We want Donald Trump to pressurise Ruto. Help us have IEBC constituted soonest possible," he said.

Elected leaders who accompanied Mr Gachagua to the church service declared opposition to President Ruto's reelection.

Roysambu MP Kamande Mwafrika said Mt Kenya's 2027 contest bus is ready only waiting for the door to open "and we will all troop from the ruling party United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and into it, our team leader being Mr Gachagua".

Tetu MP Geoffrey Wandeto warned that "the more you tell netizens not to put you in a coffin the more you will be put. There are things you don't compete with. Give jobs to those youths and they will be busy not to put you in a coffin. Unless you want to tell us you can transform half of this country to be a jail".

Kipipiri MP Wanjiku Muhia said that "getting President Ruto out of power salvages our education and health...We are headed where health and education will no longer be attained as a basic need but a luxury owing to the introduction of disruptive and non-working funding models".

She was referring to Dr Ruto flagship projects on health and higher education funding— the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) and the Variable Scholarship and Loan Funding (VSLF)—  whose rollout has been rocked by various challenges.

Naivasha MP Ms Jayne Kihara said she personally regrets playing an active role in putting the Kenya Kwanza Alliance into office.

"The president is the one who was mobilising for the impeachment of Mr Gachagua. The president called me severally with these words: Kama wewe ni rafiki yangu, sign that petition to remove Gachagua from office amenisumbua sana (if you are my friend, support Gachagua's impeachment for he is difficult to work with)," she said.

She said the Kenya Kwanza Alliance government “wanted to recruit us into a national lying movement... I feel sorry about how easily I fell into Ruto lies. I'm repenting daily".

Embakasi Central MP Mr Benjamin Gathiru revealed a plot to have Mt Kenya take over the gubernatorial slot of the capital city.

"Our preliminary proposal to take over Nairobi from Ruto and Governor Johnson Sakaja is Embakasi North MP Mr James Gakuya. If need be, we will cut all deals possible to remove the capital from Ruto's grip," he said.

Mr Gachagua further accused the government of making it a big issue when children criticise it.

"You say our children are insulting you. You continue to issue threats from the rooftop of your vehicle by calling us stupid and demon-possessed. You are a good tutor of insults. Remove the log in your eye before you go for the specks in our eyes," he said.

He said part of the reason he was impeached was because he refused to join the bandwagon of lying and insulting others.

“President William Ruto sponsored impeachment has no chance of breaking me and I will continue to stand firm in the storm. President Ruto cannot break me...he thought we would turn out in anger after he sponsored my hounding out of office... We will rise at 3 am in 2027 and he will see how we in Mt Kenya protest against those who spite us".

He added that the president 'lied to, and betrayed Mt Kenya...We will pay you in kind. We are lying in wait for you".