Dennis Itumbi, a close ally of President William Ruto has made a statement concerning Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s statement during an interview with Citizen TV, where he complained about his recent removal from a WhatsApp group managing the president’s diary.
During the Friday, September 20 night interview, DP Gachagua claimed that himself and his chief of staff were removed from the WhatsApp group by President William Ruto’s private secretary Reuben Miayo a week ago, hence he has been unable to attend important functions of the Head of State.
“I was removed, my private secretary and Chief of Staff was removed and so we have no access to the diary. I am the DP elected by the people and I am the principal assistant of the President. It is only right and fair that I have access to the presidential diary so that I align his diary with my diary because he is the boss,” he noted.
However, Itumbi says that nothing could be further from the truth. He says that the WhatsApp group in question had to be deleted entirely because of classified information and President’s security concerns. He also mentioned that the president was removed from the group even before him as well as the other members.
“What DP Gachagua fails to mention is that the President was removed even before him, and the group was permanently deleted due to the highly classified documents being shared in WhatsApp groups. A security decision was also made that no other group would be formed on the diary,” Itumbi said, in a long post on X, formerly Twitter.
DP Gachagua had expressed his frustrations over the issue, stating that this made it difficult for him to keep up with the president’s schedule.
“We were not able to follow what was going on and so we cannot align. When I am aware where the President is, I am always there. When I am not aware, there is nothing I can do about it,” said Gachagua.
Gachagua stated that his removal from the WhatsApp group along with his team was part of a broader plan to impeach him, undermine him and portray him as disrespectful and absent.
“There is mischief to remove me from the Presidential diary so that once I do not attend Presidential events, so it can be reported that I am running away from my duty. I hear that is one of the grounds for impeachment. Sometimes they want me to appear late so that it can appear I am disrespectful,” he claimed.
Itumbi also accused Gachagua of not being truthful and trivialising small issues out of proportion.
“On the King’s visit meme, it’s absurd how far DP Gachagua has gone to draw attention to a satirical piece of art, developed clearly by those against UDA at the time for social media banter. At one point, he made the President cancel a crucial Universal Health Coverage meeting for a two-hour session to discuss the Meme’s impact on his political standing. He accused MP Ndindi Nyoro & myself of demeaning him, even taking offense at Ndindi for hosting development sessions in Kiharu – the same benchmarking he once participated in as Mathira MP.”
Itumbi lamented that their only problem and the reason why DP Gachagua is mad at them was because they refused to bow to the kingship politics of the mountain.
“Some of us refuse to bow down to the ‘Kingpin’ politics of the mountain, and that’s our only ‘offense.’ We refuse to praise and worship, we disobey orders to tweet personalized platitudes to Muthamaki the King and instead believe in One Nation. One Flag. One People “
