Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Sunday, March 12, claimed that former State House Comptroller Kinuthia Mbugua was the man behind the Ksh1.5 billion request made to the National Treasury days after elections.
Speaking during a joint press review, the DP held that Mbugua made the request on behalf of the Office of the Deputy President in a bid to save face after President William Ruto won the election.
He claimed that Mbugua acted with former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani who made public the request.
“Former Cabinet Secretary Yatani and Mbugua had cut off funds to the Office of the Deputy President for four years under the instructions of Uhuru Kenyatta.
“When Ruto became president, the two were embarrassed and sought to undo the damage of what they had done,” Gachagua remarked.
He explained that the funds were initially budgeted for Ruto’s office, who was the deputy president at the time amid the fallout between him and Uhuru.“The previous year, they cut the budget from Ksh4 billion shillings and they cut it by Ksh1.5 billion which they tried to reinstate,” the DP explained.
Gachagua further demanded an apology from one of the local dailies for claiming that it was he who demanded the money and referring to Second Lady Dorcas Rigathi as his ‘wife’ instead of ‘spouse’.
The clarification came after Yatani, in response to claims by Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o, who alleged that Ksh15 billion approved under the CS’s duress, implicated Gachagua.
Meanwhile, he refuted allegations that the Kenya Kwanza government was hell-bent on undermining the freedom of the press. He explained that he was only calling out the media for what he termed as obvious floors.
“Freedom of the press comes with a responsibility; to be objective and accurate. The media should allow people to criticise it because, if I find a media group is not objective, I will say so in broad daylight,” he stated.
Gachagua clarified his threat to crush the media if it went to bed with the current administration’s enemies maintaining that it was in a political context.
