Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has launched a scathing attack on President William Ruto over what he terms as ethnic favouritism and double standards in the handling of the ongoing investigations into Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat.
In a live interview with media stations in Meru on Friday, June 20, 2025, Gachagua dismissed Lagat’s stepping aside as a mere public relations exercise, accusing the president of protecting Lagat because of tribal ties.
He called on Ruto to fire Lagat immediately, drawing comparisons to the way the former Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), George Kinoti, was pushed out of office under Ruto’s administration.
“This thing of saying Lagat has stepped aside is a joke. It is a game, and the President knows it,” Gachagua said.
“When it was Kinoti, there was no stepping aside. He was removed without ceremony. Why is Lagat being treated with kid gloves?”
DIG Lagat is currently under investigation following the death of blogger and teacher Albert Ojwang’, who died on June 8, 2025, while in police custody at the Central Police Station in Nairobi. A postmortem revealed that Ojwang’ had been assaulted and strangled, sparking public outrage and international condemnation.
Gachagua questioned why Lagat was still holding any influence within the police service and challenged Ruto to stop hiding behind the stepping aside narrative.
“Let us not lie to Kenyans. If this government is serious about justice, then Lagat should be sacked today—not tomorrow, not next week. You cannot preach fairness and protect your tribesmen when they are involved in serious crimes,” he stated.
The former deputy president, who has in recent months rebranded himself as an opposition figure after falling out with the Kenya Kwanza administration, accused President Ruto of betraying the promise of a fair and accountable government.
“We campaigned on a platform of justice, equality, and rule of law. What I am seeing now is tribal protectionism. The president must lead by example. If Kinoti was removed for lesser things, what excuse is there now for keeping Lagat?” he posed.
Gachagua went further to say that there was a deliberate effort by the state to shield top security officers from accountability as long as they came from certain ethnic communities.
“There is no Kenya A and Kenya B. If someone commits a crime, their ethnicity should not save them. The moment we start applying the law selectively, we lose the moral authority to lead,” he said.
He also took issue with the pace of the investigation by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), noting that public trust in the justice system was waning.
“Kenyans are not stupid. They can see through the delay tactics. IPOA must act swiftly and transparently. Let those who killed that young man face the full force of the law. No amount of PR can bury the truth,” Gachagua said.
The outspoken Democracy for Citizen Party (DCP) leader called on civil society, the church, and international partners to keep up the pressure on the government to ensure accountability in Ojwang’s case.
“This is no longer just about one death. It’s about whether the government can protect its citizens or not. If we let this pass, then we are telling the police that they can kill and nothing will happen,” he warned.
Ruto fires Kinoti
President William Ruto revealed that he fired former Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti, despite announcing on September 27, 2022, that Kinoti had resigned.
Speaking in a joint interview at State House on Wednesday, January 4, 2023, Ruto stated that Kinoti was removed from his position for overseeing a team accused of multiple extrajudicial killings.
“I had a thorough meeting with the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, and we have agreed that we don’t need to establish another task force when IPOA is there and it is squarely within their mandate to tell us how Kenyans ended up being killed in this manner, and it was business as usual,” he stated.
Adding, “Thirty bodies in Yala, 17 in Garissa, there was a container here at the Nairobi Area where people were being slaughtered, in a police station…how did we end up there? What kind of rogue institution was that? And that is why I fired that Kinoti man because it’s not right. There will be responsibility.”
