Did Gachagua apologise for insults he did not utter against Mama Ngina?
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’ apology to the 90 year old Mama Ngina Kenyatta over political insults by Kenya Kwanza Alliance loyalists is turning out to have been a classic case of deft political stroke that has stirred emotions in Mt Kenya region politics.
Mr Gachagua while live on TV said “I apologise for the bad politics that led us to hurl and demean a woman of great respects in our community. What beats me is how we descended so low as to fight each other like rabid dogs”.
Saying the events before and after the August 9, 2022 General Election saw political manners go to the winds and tearing into each other taking center stage, Mr Gachagua felt “Mama Ngina should have been kept out of it”.
A day after the apology, Mama Ngina made a stone cold public presence in Kiambu county during the burial ceremony of her extended family member—Curtis Mureithi Matu 34, who died in a car crash last Friday along Kiambu Road.
The deceased was a grandson to Mama Ngina’s co-wife, Mrs Grace Wanjiku who was the third wife of the founding father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Pundits now warn that Mr Gachagua had nothing exactly to apologise for as a person since a study of political clips do not capture him anywhere insulting Mama Ngina who is considered both a national and Mt Kenya region matriarch.
Instead, those well captured on record are key allies of President William Ruto hence the apology coming out as pressure for the head of state.
Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ng’eno and his Kapseret counterpart Mr Oscar Sudi are among those who were arrested and charged in court in 2022 for utterances that were connoted by investigators to be injurious to Mama Ngina.
So furious were some State House operatives that one in a WhatsApp message asked: “He apologized on whose behalf? Who in Mt Kenya insulted Mama Ngina? That talk show has boomeranged to state house since president’s men are now being asked even on social media to also apologise”.
The apology has even confused Mt Kenya political pundits who feel Mr Gachagua’s move was coated with broader politics.
“It is not aptly clear why the apology had to be specifically from Mr Gachagua…There are those who can ask why the apology is not from higher levels…that is the fear and it is being debated,” long time administrator, Joseph Kaguthi told Nation.
Mr Kaguthi said “our own politician’s lack of decorum for the Kenyatta family as they battled for Mt Kenya political soul opened the doors wide for some outside our community to isolate Mama Ngina for insults”.
Mr Kaguthi said “the political spokesman of the Kenyatta family for now is the former president and who remains a strong voice for the current and future politics within Mt Kenya region and who was best placed to be addressed in the apology”.
So tricky has the apology become to a point where a nominated MP told Nairobi News that “you people are piling pressure on us through this cheeky political act…the apology as it has come out to be, was meant to fight bigger battles both at the national and Mt Kenya region levels”.
The MP said “as one who is in the kitchen where the politics are steaming will tell you that President
Ruto has been courting the former President for a political pact”.
She said that “the plan is being read by Gachagua loyalists to be behind eruption of dissenters who are agitating for the sidelining of Mr Gachagua for purposes of 2027 General Election”.
As a fightback plan, Mr Gachagua is being rated as a man who crafted the apology so as to win Mt Kenya’s public acceptance and pull the rag off his Mt Kenya opponents.
Former Gatanga MP Mr Nduati Ngugi said “the political boil in Mt Kenya is ripening at a high rate and the apology is just one of the symptoms as we head to the Jubilee Party and United Democratic Alliance (UDA) fight for the Mt Kenya soul through in-house elections”.
Mr Ngugi termed the apology as “genius survival tactic that for now remains effective and serving the intended purpose of according Gachagua some goodwill he did not have”.
Narc Kenya leader Ms Martha Karua went to her social media account and appreciated the Gachagua apology to Mama Ngina but warned that “this is a step in the right direction but falls short of the required cleansing rights to fully atone when you offend, nay insult your mother or elders”.
Kikuyu Council of elders Chairman Mr Wachira Kiago said “for purposes of Mt Kenya region housekeeping, we are okay with the apology”.
He said “the council treats Mr Gachagua’s words as remorse for the whole of Kenyatta family regarding the collective persecutions they suffered from all Kenya Kwanza Alliance brigade”.
Others are interpreting the apology to have been demanded by the Kikuyu Council of Elders so as to consider him as the heir to the Mount Kenya region kingpin.
Mr Kiago said “it is true that we have been urging Mr Gachagua and Mr Kenyatta to unite for the sake of the community…Mr Kenyatta is on record publicly saying his family that includes his mother has been insulted by the current elected leaders and it was logical that someone apologized”.
Mr Kiago said “be it be the stealing of the family’s sheep, defamation, slander and direct insults…when one says sorry hostilities must cease and we are happy to a point that we are now considering engaging
Mr Gachagua in an evaluation meant to hand him the instruments of area kingpin”.
Mr Kiago said “Mr Gachagua has now come home as that prodigal son whom we can no longer fight, we are engaging him for more elaborate atonement rituals and generally we are all happy”.
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