OPEN LETTER TO
His Excellency Rigathi Gachagua,
2nd Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya.
Dear Excellency,
Re: Many Congratulations and Greetings from Bondo.
May it please your Excellency to know that my name is Richard Otieno and I come from Bondo, and my wife happens to be a beautiful Kikuyu lady from Nyeri with whom I have two now grown-up sons. One of them actually has a Kikuyu name in tribute to his grandfather in Nyeri.
My first congratulations are due because of your bold decision that you will soon be going to Bondo to pay respects to my fallen relative Raila Odinga and to condole with the family of Jaramogi. Your visit will be very significant and in keeping with a tradition set by two other great leaders from Nyeri. The Late JM Kariuki from Nyeri was the highest-ranking member of the Kikuyu community to attend the burial of Tom Mboya after his assassination by Isaac Njenga Njoroge in 1969, on what is now Tom Mboya Street.
Another great Nyerian also came and mourned the murdered Robert Ouko in Koru in 1991. The bereaved have giant eyes to see those who come to mourn with them and a lifetime memory that you attended.
So welcome to Bondo. Confirm the day of coming early so that I can also attend the coming of my Muthoniwa. You see, it is not only the Maasais who are your Muthoniwas. By the way, Raila Odinga Junior’s wife is from Murang’a and we paid dowry, so he is another athoniwa, and there are children out of that union.
You cannot stop us from being your relatives, can you? Besides, there is our shared humanity in the eyes of the Almighty God — the issue of “cousins” notwithstanding. In case this is not true, please check with our beloved Pastor Dorcas.
My second congratulations are to Pastor Dorcas on her ordination as a Bishop. Apart from her intercessory prayers having propelled you to the second-highest office in the land, I may be forgiven for speculating that her prayers may also have precipitated your decision to forgive and forget your altercations with the late PM Raila. You called him Mchawi and Murogi. He later responded in kind by calling you Gachietha, which I am sure you soon learned means “a piece of shit.”
Nothing really to make you feel guilty because President Ruto enriched your adjectives with words like Mtu wa Kitendawili, including throwing the whole Luo community and children into the mix as “wale watu wa kung’oa reli.”
President Kenyatta called Raila Mugoroki before he became his brother after the handshake in 2018.
My third and probably controversial congratulations are for the way you succeeded in causing the formation of the so-called broad-based government and its other derivatives like bread-based or blood-based government. If you had not preached the politics of “shareholding and kuweka mtego kila pahali State House,” there is no way President Ruto would have marshalled Raila and ODM support in Parliament to impeach you.
As a truthful man, I urge you to acknowledge this truth. To quote one of your recent statements, it was nothing personal — just politics. The same principle obtains when you pleaded with President Ruto to let you deal with Raila personally and permanently consign him to Bondo in the wake of the Maandamano of 2023, where some 77 Luo Gen Zs were killed. As Deputy President, you were Deputy Baba wa Taifa. Even if you wanted to discriminate against some of your Kenyan children, you should not have been truthful about it. Being truthful is not always a good thing. Ask Pastor Dorcas. Even Apostle Peter had to lie about knowing Jesus. Had he not lied three times, he would have been executed on the same day with Jesus.
Your Excellency Riggy G, now Raila is permanently in Bondo, and it is extremely gracious of you that you go to solemnly witness his final resting place. I am sure this is not what you meant when you said you would send him to Bondo.
I believe that the people of Bondo and the Luos — especially the Christians who know about the healing power of forgiveness — will embrace you and welcome you. Please bring along my sister Pastor Dorcas. Forget about this running with cows and shouting Jowi. Many of my generation who also grew up in Nairobi do not understand this spectacle. Please spare Pastor Dorcas the ritual of running with the spear.
Finally, your Excellency, if I was ever to meet you personally, I would engage you in more robust discussion about our country. Like, is there any way by which current leaders like you could inspire our Gen Z children to walk away from the shadow of tribal hate that has defined our country for the last 60 years?
This hate between the Kikuyus and the Luos can burn this country. But at your high pedestal as DP, I can only dream of such an encounter.
I was made to believe that you, like the late Charles Njonjo, had sworn that you do not shake the hand of Luos like me because of frequent outbreaks of cholera in Kisumu. And that you ensured any Luo civil servant who worked at the office of the DP when you were there was transferred, and none has ever been returned. I believe that is just a negative rumour. But Luos still remember what Njonjo said about them and how he made them feel. The spoken word — especially from a leader — can be powerful and endure for generations. May the soul of Njonjo rest in peace.
As a person with Kikuyu family members, I know how many Kikuyus feel about Raila. But I will not go into that now.
More than 1.2 million still voted for him despite your skilful and shrewd campaign that invoked and exploited ethnic fault lines to deliver the presidency to Ruto, albeit narrowly. President Ruto is your creation, and to your credit as a truthful man you have not denied this fact. I like you for that.
Let me just ask you this last question that stems from your recent advice to the GEMA people this week in the run-up to the Mbeere by-elections, premised on the Kikuyu saying: “You do not bury an elephant with its tusks.” That would be extremely stupid and against Kikuyu culture,” you said. You remove the tusks and then you bury the useless carcass.
It is obvious that Mutahi Kagwe did not drive past Githurai with his flag as a CS. By the way, when is the last time you heard anything said by Lee Kinyanjui or CS Wahome supporting anything in the Ruto government? Is it a reasonable conclusion that the seven GEMA members of the Cabinet have taken your advice and that they are quietly extracting the tusks from the elephant, as you correctly advised? Why don’t you want the Luo “experts” to do the same? Or do you prefer them to remain “extremely stupid”? Forgive them though for their lack of table manners. They are shouting too much with their mouths full and “vomiting on our shoes.” They are non-shareholders invited to the high table. What do you expect them to do but sing the praise songs very loudly?
To my Gen Z children it was the low of low spectacle witnessing the second Deputy President of the Republic and the second Prime Minister of the Republic engaged is such machanguano like 11 year old boys with one telling the other that my mother is more beautiful than your mother. The 12 year old kids are too mature than that because by that age they are studying for exams.
As to whether ODM and, by extension, the Luos will be working with UDA and Ruto in 2027, I can only refer to Raila’s last speech: “WHO TOLD YOU?”
CC: Pastor Dorcas Rigathi
