The standoff between Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Nairobi governor Johnstone Sakaja has escalated after Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna joined the fray and told the DP to back off.
Sifuna told DP Gachagua to keep of the affairs of Nairobi County and allow Governor Sakaja to discharge his mandate.
“DP Rigathi Gachagua is effortlessly turning himself into a national joke, delivering illegal decrees and generally behaving like a DO from a bygone era,” said Sifuna in a statement.
In a strongly worded statement, said Gachagua had had a tiff with Governor Sakaja over the management of city affairs, which in most right-thinking Kenyans have rightfully ignored given the DP’s unmatched ability to be a national nuisance.
“But he has now gone a step further and declared that he can direct any governor on what to do. I now take it upon myself to educate the DP …, said Sifuna.
Saying that Gachagua is over-estimating his influence over Nairobi politics, Sifuna told Governor Sakaja to go ahead and execute his agenda in the manner he sees fit and that he will account to the people of Nairobi and not Gachagua.
He said it was obvious that Gachagua still has the hangover from his glory days as an all-powerful DO and that it was the good time to remind him that those days are long gone.
“Let him keep off the running of county governments and concentrate on delivering the many promises he nad the President made to Kenyans, strictly in line with the powers he has under the constitution,” said Sifuna.
Gachagua and Sakaja are locked in a dispute sparked by Sakaja’s move to decongest the city where matatus would be kicked from the central business district.
But Gachagua speaking tough on Inooro TV last night told Sakaja not interfere or disrupt any matatu business saying removing matatu from CBD would kill businesses. He went on to tell the matatu owners to continue operating as usual saying he will ensure their protection.
