Kuria: There is no bad blood between Ruto, Gachagua

Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has dismissed claims of strained relations between President William Ruto and his deputy, Rigathi Gachagua.

Kuria said that Gachagua has distinctly defined roles as Deputy President unlike when Ruto served in the position.

The CS, however, argued that should differences emerge between the two leaders, the DP would have to bend backwards and amicably resolve the situation.

“From where I sit I do not have empirical evidence of any problem between the President and his deputy. If there could be any, the burden of resolution would be on Gachagua, the man who ought to bend backwards…When you accuse people of wedging a rift, that is indicting the judgment value or capabilities of the president,” he said during a televised interview.

Unlike Ruto, whose only role was being the principal assistant to the president in the Jubilee regime, Kuria said Gachagua has quite a number of duties including chairing Cabinet committees and being in charge of development partners in critical projects.

The DP is also mandated to streamline the tea and coffee sectors, fight alcoholism and is in charge of State honours.

“Gachagua has done incredibly well in the management of the Cabinet committees. Remember, I am in charge of performance and one of the areas performing very well is the Cabinet processes. When we go to Cabinet we expedite and execute processes faster because we do brainstorming in the committees chaired by Gachagua, which Ruto did not have as deputy president,” he explained.

“To be the second deputy president - because the rest were vice presidents - is such an honour and a great calling. I campaigned along with Gachagua, we came a long way in the then-called Tanga tanga movement, there were so many of us, men and women who were very qualified like Anne Waiguru, Ndindi Nyoro, Alice Wahome, Justin Muturi and Kithure Kindiki among others but the president chose Gachagua,” he added.

The CS, however, took a swipe at Gachagua over the push for one man, one vote one shilling revenue formula saying that as a Deputy President, he should be seeing the whole country as one unit.

“This country is not just about your village or county. The best investment is to invest in Kenya. All of us are aggrieved in different ways. I’m not happy about how I get treated all the time. What has my personal frustrations got to do with anything, why would I want to make it part of the nation and part of a team that has got a point to prove on transforming the country? Moving this country forward is more important and is much more superior than an individual. In the fullness of time I will have a conversation with him," said Kuria

At the same time, he insisted that there is no bad blood between Ruto and former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Kuria, however, said that Uhuru should have taken a better approach to air his grievances.

“We are extremely busy people with so many challenges. For us, it is a mismatch of expectations. We have a country to run, we have challenges of food, healthcare and education, where would we even get time to fight with Uhuru Kenyatta? He posed.

"We have a country run by laws and avenues to resolve whatever grievances that someone would feel rightly or wrongly have not been done. I believe the retired president should have done better but we are saying, given the challenges of the Finance Bill, budget, recent flooding, junior school and others, where do you find space for one individual in a county of 53 million people?” the CS added.