Rigathi Gachagua Breaks Silence after Chaotic Return from US

Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua has commented on the chaos that marred his return from the United States.

Gachagua, who departed Nairobi for the US on July 9, returned to Kenya on Thursday, August 21, after six weeks of a political tour abroad.

What was supposed to be a grand return turned chaotic as the former deputy president's convoy got stoned by goons on Mombasa Road.

Gachagua had been slated to address his supporters in Kamukunji grounds, but shelved that plan after the stoning incidents.

Speaking to a local radio station, Gachagua linked the goons' attack to the state.

He claimed that the goons were sponsored by the government to disrupt his reception.

Nonetheless, the reception was impressive, he observed.

"Kasongo and his people planned for the goons to attack, but God is powerful. It's God's grace that the person who was impeached to go to Wamunyoro was received well in America, and only to come back to receive millions of people waiting for me," he said.

The former deputy president revealed that his stay in the US was sponsored by his generous supporters, seeming to quash the assertion that he was there to seek financial support for his political ambitions.

He explained that the diasporians fed him and arranged how he would move from one state to the other, spreading his political agenda.

"While I was staying in America, I didn't spend any money. Kenyans in America are the ones who planned everything for me, car to use, food," he said.

Gachagua said his tour to the US was not malicious and only aimed at informing the Kenyans abroad of the political goings-on in Kenya.

According to him, those in the diaspora needed to understand what was happening in the country for them to make informed political decisions.

"I went to search for our people to tell them what was happening here in Kenya. They wanted to know what was happening from a truthful man. I told Kenyans in the US that back here we have a lot of problems, and they remember their families with hospital bills. Food and education as things are tough. I took time to look for our cousins because even if our community is big, we can't do it on our own," he added.

Gachagua's return had been preceded by calls for arrest from a host of political leaders and government sympathisers who accused him of speaking recklessly while in the US.

Mandera senator Ali Roba is one of the leaders who wanted Gachagua apprehended as soon as he lands in Nairobi.

The senator had taken issue with the former deputy president's claims that President William Ruto had ever met the representatives of the Somalia-based terror group al-Shabaab.

According to Roba, Gachagua's claims were unfounded, explaining that Ruto's engagements in Mandera were public and at no given time did he go into private engagements with anyone, let alone the members of the Somali terror group.

Roba's sentiments were underscored by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, who warned that such sentiments by the DCP leader were posing a threat to national security.

Meanwhile, Gachagua's deputy in DCP, Cleophas Malala, warned that arresting his boss would plunge the country into chaos.