Opinion: Why we should not welcome Gachagua back- Edwin Kuria

Ahead of the planned arrival of Impeached former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua  from his tour of the USA, it is time to ask ourselves the tough questions.  Is he really worth the anticipated welcome back to the country when he is a man on the wrong path of division and destruction of the country?

Since Gachagua left the country  to visit  the USA, Kenya has been enjoying relative calmness. The former second in command was Impeached by parliament in October  2024 before he soon thereafter embarked on a sustained campaign to sow seeds of division in the country.

In his absence,  Gachagua went out to shamelessly spread malicious propaganda to the diaspora  while back at home, Kenya has been calm with decent politics on both side of the divide, pointing to a sad but hard fact that indeed Gachagua is the poisoned chalice within the Kenyan political landscape.

A bitter man who keeps trying to pull everyone to his own side instead of championing for free democratic space creates problems. As a Kenyan Citizen,  Gachagua is at liberty to come to his homeland and traverse any part of the country,  however his rights and freedoms must not threaten the rights of millions of other Kenyans who have been enjoying peace and tranquility.

In his absence,  the country  has enjoyed  good times both in the political arena as well as in sports where the  national football team Harambee Stars has attained great results at the ongoing  African Nations Championship (CHAN) where Kenya has already  booked a quarter-final berth set to be played on Friday August 22 at Kasarani Stadium.

The results by the resilient Harambee Stars players have unified the nation with their good performance and magical results on the pitch. However,  sad news from a section of supporters of Gachagua  hints at destabilising the calm and unity being enjoyed in the country. Gachagua’s coming back if it will bring negative energy to the country after a relatively calmness since he was away is bad for the country and the Harambee Stars team.

DCP deputy party leader Cleophas Malala is on record saying that they will disrupt CHAN if Gachagua is arrested. These selfish and unfortunate comments from Gachagua’s deputy are narcissistic of the opposition politicians and sad from a leader of his caliber.

DCP is playing bad politics with the country since the Cabinet Secretary for Interior Kipchumba Murkomen has clarified that no one has plans to arrest Gachagua and the threats of  bringing CHAN to their stupid politics is very selfish.

They had predicted that Kenyans will disrupt CHAN and on the contrary, they have been disappointed as the team has performed exceptionally well and now Kenyans are happy with President William Ruto following the Head of State’s motivation for Harambee Stars to good performance. President Ruto has so far rewarded Harambee stars with 5 million shillings following the teams win over DRC Congo, Morocco and Zambia as well as a draw against Angola.

Gachagua now sadly intends to bring back chaos and anarchy before CHAN Concludes. We continue to wish Harambee Stars well in their next match against Madagascar next Friday and we ask Gachagua to stay away from anything about CHAN and Harambee Stars

To emphasise that Gachagua has been a polarising factor in the politics of the day is underscored  by the fact that since the DCP leader left Kenya for the USA, Kenya has not experienced any demonstrations.  No one has been on the streets demonstrating. Kenya experienced peace during nane nane protests which were largely peaceful while Gachagua was away.

 Gachagua has in the past been accused of enriching himself by soliciting money from people to continue to enrich himself yet doing nothing to support businessmen who he is taking money from when their businesses are vandalised by the anarchy he creates.

Before his impeachment, Gachagua was accused of intimidating other leaders especially from his region which led to his impeachment but today he wants to go down with a whole community, something which will not happen.