• Dorcas said she was grateful to Kenyans for electing her husband.
• Her motivation was drawn from the life of her mother as a widow, and how she suffered in the hands of her uncles.
Image: DORCAS GACHAGUA /FACEBOOK
Dorcas Rigathi, Deputy president-elect Rigathi Gachagua’s wife, has said she will support her husband as he serves Kenyans.
Speaking just hours before the swearing-in of President-elect William Ruto and his deputy Gachagua, Dorcas said she was grateful to Kenyans for electing her husband.
“I am very excited to see my husband’s dream come true and him being given that job by Kenyans to be able to serve them,” he said.
She said she was her husband’s helper and will always be supporting Gachagua during his tenure.
“As a mother of the nation, together with mother Rachel Ruto, we are going to do what a mother should do, nurture and help,” she said.
Gachagua and Dorcas have been married for the past 35 years and have two sons, Kelvin Gachagua a software engineer and Keith Keino, who is a medical doctor.
She was born in Murang'a but raised in Thika after her father passed away when she was 11 years, Dorcas revealed in an interview with Nation.
How they met
Gachagua was a student at the University of Nairobi and Dorcas was studying at Kenyatta University.
He was organising a bus to take the students to Moi when she met him.
“I remember he was wearing a suit, he has always worn suits and a brown tie. I thought he was interesting. On that day, actually, I’d felt like life was not worth living. So I decided that trip was going to be my last."
Dorcas said that she had planned to create a scene by ranting at the president so that she could get shot, but the plans were cut short by Gachagua who offered her words of comfort when she confessed what she was about to do.
This was the begging of a love story that later led to marriage. At one time Dorcas worked as a house help to try and help her mother feed their family.
She noted that she was drawn to church since she was young. Dorcas joined House of Ministries church in 2002 as an usher and later started working with widows in the church.
Her motivation was drawn from the life of her mother as a widow, and how she suffered in the hands of her uncles.
“I loved to work with widows, I started a widow ministry because of my background. Just because a man has died and left a woman with children, that woman does not become a burden I saw how the women were being treated by the society and the society did not seem to care how these women felt,” she said.
Dorcas has on several occasions defended her husband when caught in an internet storm because of his utterances.