Rigathi Gachagua, Kenya’s former Deputy President, has accused the government of plotting to assassinate him on his return from the United States.
Speaking on Citizen TV on Tuesday night, the Democracy for Citizens party leader alleged that a police unit, disguised as hired goons, had been deployed to kill him shortly after he landed at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport last week.
“The government organised to attack me. Those were policemen in civilian clothes, accompanied by goons. They wanted to kill me at Pipeline, but I escaped death by a whisker,” he said during the live interview.
Mr Gachagua claimed that the attackers attempted to crush his convoy along Mombasa Road near Cabanas and that a heavy object was dropped on his vehicle in what he described as a coordinated attempt on his life. He said the plan was to later blame the violence on “rowdy youths” who had clashed in the area during his homecoming.
According to him, plainclothes police officers had blended into the crowd, while another team monitored the situation from a civilian helicopter. He said that after assessing the risk, he abandoned his planned rally at Kamukunji.
“There were tens of youths armed with crude weapons waiting for me. Had I gone ahead, the consequences would have been dire,” Mr Gachagua said. He warned that such actions could plunge the country into conflict. “If he [Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen] had killed me, there would be no country; there would be a civil war.”
His remarks came days after Mr Murkomen said Mr Gachagua would be summoned to explain earlier claims that the government was colluding with terror groups. Mr Gachagua, however, insisted that the authorities had also planned to arrest him at the airport.
“When Murkomen threatened to arrest me, my supporters decided to come to the airport to make sure that I was safe. It was a family affair,” he told Citizen TV.
The government has not yet issued an official response to the explosive allegations.
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