You will be forgiven to think that Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is still in the campaign mood, both in body and mind. He will rarely miss words like “state capture” at every turn of his interviews with the media.
Last Sunday, while being interviewed by a local TV Station, he was captured trying to explain the reason why the country was facing a serious forex problem, he said this is because of State capture by the previous regime of President Uhuru Kenyatta. ‘’There was a lot of interest in owning commercial banks by very senior people in government-owned banks and they got involved in this forex business.”
The DP’S remarks lately have not only been pedestrian but rather dangerous. The DP’s remarks on Kenya’s forex situation prompted an immediate response from the Central Bank of Kenya. DP Gachagua was quoted saying, “we have insufficient foreign exchange and the Central Bank does not have enough foreign currency to cover for importing oil.”
About a fortnight ago, the Deputy President first made such a shocking remark about the country’s coffers, stating that when they took over the government, they only found Ksh. 93 million in the country’s account, something that shocked many Kenyans. This prompted a response by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani who denied such allegations
But in a quick rejoinder, the Central Bank noted, “all foreign exchange for private transactions is obtained from commercial banks. CBK does not supply foreign exchange for transactions other than for National Government or CBK operations.” With this response, Gachagua’s remarks can only be described as a gaffe.
About a fortnight ago, the Deputy President first made such a shocking remark about the country’s coffers, stating that when they took over the government, they only found Ksh. 93 million in the country’s account, something that shocked many Kenyans. This prompted a response by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani who denied such allegations.
Yatani went ahead to say, “there’s a lot of ignorance about here, the government does not collect money to store it in one place, we raise revenue on a daily basis and we fund government activities daily and there are competing needs.”
Gachagua’s continued dalliance with the media, and his appetite for dissecting matters economy even though he is not a subject matter expert while insisting that he speaks from a point of honesty about these matters, does not inspire confidence in the state of Kenya’s economy.
With his everyday utterances, there’s a growing concern among the citizens that he is still yet to appreciate that indeed he is the deputy president of Kenya, as opposed to the man that was campaigning a few months ago.
By Alvine Opicho
