Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta has reportedly declined an offer to meet and reconcile with Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, a source has revealed to The Weekly Vision. According to the source, the DP had allegedly sent emissaries composed of mainly church leaders and Kikuyu elders to the former president, but he turned them away.
The DP’s attempts to initiate reconciliation talks with Uhuru Kenyatta over the political direction and future of the Mt. Kenya region hit a dead end, leaving the DP at the mercy of President William Ruto, who is now keen on propping up Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi as his next running mate in the 2027 presidential race.
But what could be the main reason the former president rejected Mr. Gachagua’s request for reconciliation? A source says the former president is yet to forgive the DP for publicly humiliating him during the presidential swearing-in ceremony at Kasarani late last year in the presence of foreign dignitaries, including diplomats and the general public. Keen political observers may have noticed that during his speech at the event, the DP claimed that Kenya was now free under the new president, William Ruto.
Uhuru Kenyatta’s close allies thought the humiliation from Gachagua mirrored what the late President Daniel Moi was subjected to during the swearing-in of President Mwai Kibaki in 2002. The former president is said to have bitterly complained to close allies about how his immediate family members are being dragged into politics to the extent that the DP has no respect for the former first lady, Mama Ngina Kenyatta. Analysts say the manner in which Gachagua attacked Uhuru and the Kenyatta family in general during the campaigns was overboard, and that even ODM leader Raila Odinga had never attacked Uhuru Kunyatta’s family in that manner during campaigns.
A source says Gachagua’s past attacks against the former president and his family are not very easy to forgive. The former president is on record warning residents of Mount Kenya against voting for William Ruto and Rigathi Gachagua, but they failed to listen. He is now having his last laugh, and with the growing rebellion against the Kenya Kwanza government by voters in the region, Uhuru Kenyatta has no reason to meet the DP; instead, he probably wishes the rebellion should grow even bigger.
