Two cabinet secretaries yesterday launched scathing attacks against former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua over his remarks that President William Ruto was an aristocratic leader who does not listen to anyone but himself.
The two, Cabinet Secretary Tourism and Wildlife Rebecca Miano and Lands, Housing, and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome described Gachagua’s remarks, as backward saying the team constituted by the Head of state has no time for politics but development.
“Referring to qualified and experienced male and female professionals as ‘flower girls’ is very lowly and crude. Flower girls are honorable young beautiful girls who carry flowers and play a noble and significant role especially in weddings signifying beautiful beginnings.Using the term flower girls in a derogatory manner is total disrespect to all the girls and women folk in the world.It is simply outrageous and absurd. It is a demonstration of outdated male chauvinism”, said Miano.
Miano added that failure by most of the ministers to comment does not show any form of them working under any pressure but it was a sign that they are fully engaged with their dockets.
Speaking separately in Nairobi, Wahome said Gachagua was simply bitter and hence there was no need for anyone to take him seriously.
“All the Cabinet secretaries you see around are very powerful in their various dockets. Our power is not through the word of mouth which Gachagua likes. I am launching the markets you see me launching because I am fully incharge of my docket. We don’t have time for someone who failed to work when he was given a job,” said Wahome.
Wahome further challenged Gachagua to present any evidence of corruption within the Affordable Housing Programme to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).She dismissed claims from Gachagua that the programme is a business venture through which some government officials and companies selling building materials allegedly profit.
“The procurement is public. So for somebody at the level of my deputy president, a former deputy president, to tell Kenyans that there is somewhere my ministry is sitting behind the scenes and making some illegal contracts, I would want him to tell the EACC where that is and who happens to be there so that then they can help me to deal with that as a corruption issue,” she said.
Wahome explained that the project has created numerous job opportunities for Kenyans, that the procurement process has been transparent, and that the project received full government approval.
“Are you telling Kenyans that if you become president, then you will stop Kenyans from owning these homes?” CS Wahome questioned.
She, therefore, urged Kenyans not to listen to the naysayers, noting that the release of the houses to the public is scheduled for the first quarter of 2025, with 4,000 units expected to behanded over.
In his numerous public forays, Gachagua said Ruto unilaterally makes decisions and reduces Cabinet secretaries to mere figureheads.Gachagua alleged that the Cabinet Secretaries have no decision-making power and are limited to rubber-stamping presidential directives
“The president runs the country as a one-man show. These ministers you see are just flowergirls—they have no say in anything. Even changing the Cabinet is pointless unless the president himself changes or is changed,” Gachagua stated.
