Gachagua’s ‘Ruto at 4’ charge sheet rocks State House

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is today expected to turn the political heat on President William Ruto with a scheduled blistering national address expected to deliver a sweeping indictment of the administration’s four years in power — from alleged corruption and state capture to the sale of public assets, police brutality, abductions and the deaths of young protesters.

At precisely noon, the former Ruto deputy will step before the cameras at the Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) headquarters in Lavington, Nairobi, for what his allies have billed as “Ruto at Four” — a political reckoning that could sharpen the battle lines ahead of the 2027 General Election.

Gachagua’s address coincides with the ongoing three-days joint United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) parliamentary group meeting in Naivasha being presided over by Ruto.

Gachagua’s communication team has this morning issued a quick dispatch to newsrooms and invited journalists to the event, describing it as a “national statement” on Ruto’s four years in office.

But behind the carefully chosen title is a much bigger political confrontation.

Gachagua has spent months constructing a damning narrative around the Ruto presidency, accusing his former boss of betraying the promises of the Kenya Kwanza campaign and presiding over an administration he says has failed Kenyans on governance, the economy, accountability and human rights.

His expected broadside comes as the former deputy president increasingly positions himself as one of the principal political architects of the anti-Ruto coalition taking shape ahead of 2027.

At the heart of Gachagua’s indictment is corruption.

He has repeatedly accused the administration of facilitating what he describes as wanton looting of public resources, extravagant government spending and the diversion of funds to political interests.

In June, Gachagua led the opposition brigade in attacking the 2025/26 supplementary budget, alleging that billions of shillings had been earmarked for what he characterised as a massive looting scheme.

But the government rubbished such characterisations as empty criticism.

According to impeccable sources who have confided to The Informer Media Group, In today’s briefing, Gachagua is also expected to revisit his explosive claims of state capture, accusing the Executive of undermining independent institutions and concentrating excessive power within the presidency and its political network.

Early last month, speaking at a forum in Sweden on July 1, 2026 titled “What Aid Can Do and Cannot Do,”, former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u accused President Ruto of overrunning government institutions, forcing civil servants to conform out of fear, hence weakening institutional independence.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor claimed that President Ruto’s leadership approach discourages public servants from acting independently.

“Right now, the current President overruns the institutions, and that’s why everyone in those institutions will have to conform for fear. But I refused to do deals in the Ministry of Finance. I can’t do them. It follows you to your grave; it doesn’t go away with the regime. It’s only capacity at the individual and institutional level that gives you the courage to say no because you know it will follow you,” he stated.

Ndung’u served as Treasury Cabinet Secretary from October 2022 until July 2024, when President Ruto dissolved the Cabinet following nationwide anti-government protests and later reconstituted it.

Gachagua, just like his opposition lieutenants led by opposition leader Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper Party), Fred Matiang’i (Jubilee), Martha Karua (People’s Liberation Party), Justin Mutiri (DP) and Eugene Wamalwa (D-APK) have often criticised the government’s programme of privatisation and disposal of public assets, which he has portrayed as an assault on national wealth. The former DP has demanded greater transparency over transactions involving State property and warned against what he calls the wholesale surrender of strategic national assets.

However, the most politically explosive chapter of his indictment will be the government’s handling of the Gen Z protests.

The 2024 demonstrations against the Finance Bill descended into some of the darkest scenes of Ruto’s presidency, with protesters killed and injured and reports emerging of abductions, enforced disappearances and excessive use of force.

Human-rights organisations documented numerous cases of police killings and enforced disappearances during the period.

Gachagua has since made the issue a recurring weapon against Ruto, accusing the administration of unleashing security agencies against young Kenyans demanding accountability.

He is expected to connect those events to renewed concerns raised during subsequent commemorations of the Gen Z protests, when rights groups again reported arrests and alleged police harassment.

The former DP has also repeatedly raised the issue of abductions, accusing security agencies of targeting government critics and opponents.

However, the Ruto administration led by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and his Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo have consistently denied responsibility for state-sponsored abductions, while officials have challenged opposition leaders to produce evidence linking the government to specific cases.

The recent killing of Dr Victoria Nthunya Mutiso, currently under investigations could further feature in the broader security debate.

Mutiso was fatally shot in Nairobi’s Upper Hill on July 29, 2026 prompting a homicide investigation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. Detectives are pursuing leads to establish the circumstances of her death.