By Laura Nyabang’a
The UDA party acknowledges the resignation letter from Rigathi Gachagua, calling it “belated” and “futile,”and later on slamming the former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua, calling him “the worst tribal demagogue in Kenya’s history,”
The party’s Secretary General Hassan Omar issued the stinging statement just hours after Gachagua formally cut ties with UDA, nearly six months after his chaotic impeachment as deputy president on October 18, 2024.
In his resignation letter, which was shared on X platform, Gachagua delivered his own devastating opinion of the UDA, calling it “the most dangerous political moment” for Kenya and accusing Ruto’s government of misleading citizens about its reform agenda.
“The party has exhausted and wasted a Kenyan moment to take off economically, socially and politically,” he wrote, condemning key policies including the controversial competency-based curriculum and university funding model as “incoherent and corrupt.”
In response , UDA referred to the former Deputy President as a “toxic, archaic, and polarizing individual,” whose “belated resignation” was simply an attempt to “rewrite the facts of your incompetence.”
“Through your resignation, the party has now fully offloaded a toxic, archaic, polarizing and viscous individual who continues to attempt to tear down the fabric of the nation,” stated UDA.
The letter referred to his October impeachment, stating that Kenya had been freed of “the worst of the tribal bigots to hold such high office.”
Gachagua and Ruto campaigned together in 2022 on a platform of economic transformation, but their relationship fell apart due to accusations of betrayal and ideological differences.
Since his impeachment, Gachagua has emerged as a vocal critic of the current administration he helped to form, recently joining together with opposition leaders Martha Karua, Kalonzo Musyoka, and Eugene Wamalwa to form a “new resistance” against Ruto’s administration.