Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale has taken Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua head-on over his penchant for Mt Kenya politics despite his stature as a national leader.
The DP has been a fierce defender of the interests of the Mt Kenya region and its people so much that his critics have accused him of advancing tribal politics.
But despite growing disapproval, the Deputy President has remained steadfast in advancing what he terms people-centred politics on behalf of his people and on numerous occasions warned against interference with ‘murima’ [mountain] by ‘outsiders’.
Speaking in Nyeri on Thursday during an interdenominational funeral service for children who perished in a fire tragedy at Hillside Endarasha Academy, the DP sustained the political ideology with a positive description of Mt Kenya people as a hospitable lot.
“People from the mountain are very good people; they are very trusting, they are very kind, and they are very loving,” he said, then somewhat sent a subtle warning that they can be unpleasant if rattled.
“They return love with love, they return kindness with kindness [and] they are very forgiving, but they don’t forget,” he said.
The DP spoke on a day it emerged that a plot to impeach him, which has been nothing more than a rumour for days, was shaping up into a tsunami with more than 250 MPs reported to have appended signatures in support of the motion by late Thursday.
Gachagua appealed to Kenyans in general to treat people from the Mt Kenya region with kindness, saying they were somewhat immortal beings who “were there, they are there today, and they will be there tomorrow.”
In his opinion, Khalwale feels it’s time the DP changed his style and dropped the region-based politics given his profile as a national leader.
“Mr Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, you are a mere heartbeat away from the presidency. You have lectured us enough about your murima. Tone down, please,” he said on X.
Gachagua has previously stated that he’s unapologetic for openly expressing his love for the central Kenya region and her people.
"I'm guilty as charged, I have no defence that I love my people, care for them and think about them. I'm guilty as charged,” he said on July 28.
The DP, however, said that his love for the Mt Kenya region should not be construed to mean he has a problem with people from other regions.
“It does not mean that because I love my people, I have a problem with the other people. The rest of Kenyans are all our friends, they are my people whom I agree with, we talk the same language and understand each other," he said during a church service at St Stephen Catholic Parish, Karoroha, in Nyandarua.