President William Ruto and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
On Monday, October 7, around 10.45 am, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua received an important call.
At the time, Mr Gachagua was in a meeting with close family members and his legal team at his Karen residence preparing for his address to the National Assembly during his impeachment proceedings the following day.
It is the kind of a call that a man facing the battle of his lifetime as he was would have evoked mixed emotions - either he was getting help at his hour of need or his troubles were about to get worse.
On the line was President William Ruto.
Mr Gachagua and his boss had not spoken for long since the last time they had met at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in July.
Mr Gachagua would later reveal in subsequent media interviews as the push to impeach him became public that their encounter didn’t end well.
This is why the call from his boss only hours to Mr Gachagua’s appearance before MPs in a last ditch effort to save his political career wasn’t routine.
Mr Gachagua was optimistic and had hoped the president had either called to assure him all would be well or to grant him an opportunity to patch up their differences.
However, none of the two was the reason for the President call. Instead, it took less than a minute for the president to pass his message to his deputy.
At the end of the call, it was clear to Mr Gachagua that he was on his own.
Multiple sources with people close to the DP and familiar with the dramatic events told Nation prior to the call, Mr Gachagua had sent emissaries to the president in a final attempt to save himself. The peace missions had failed which points to that dramatic call on Monday.
Responding to the Nation’s inquiries about the call, mediation efforts and President Ruto's silence about the woes facing his principal assistant, State House spokesman Hussein Mohammed said: "I am not aware of any delegation of church leaders, nor do I know of any phone calls. The President has no role in the ongoing issues, as the Constitution has clearly assigned those responsibilities to branches of government other than the Executive."
It emerged the latest on Sunday, on the same day the deputy president publicly sought forgiveness from his boss and MPs at a church service, President Ruto had met with a group of religious leaders who were on a mission to reconcile the two.
Catholic bishop Anthony Muheria, ACK church Archbishop James Ole Sapit, SDA leader Samson Nyaberi and leaders of evangelical churches were among those who spearheaded efforts to broker a truce between the DP and his boss.
The clerics had sought to find out the reason for the fallout between the two leaders and what it would take to reconcile them.
According to sources privy to discussions, the President said his deputy had estranged most MPs with his abrasiveness. President Ruto also accused his deputy of fighting government policies and not publicising projects being implemented in Mt Kenya.
But even more grave, the President is reported to have alluded to a scheme by his deputy that was the source of their irreconcilable differences.
“I can confirm that some bishops and even myself made attempts to reconcile the two. I am aware bishops met with the president at State House,” Nyeri governor Mutahi Kahiga told the Nation.
After the Sunday meeting, the governor added, the President promised that he would have a follow-up meeting with the religious leaders the following day which, however, did not materialise.
On Monday, on the eve of the impeachment proceedings in the National Assembly, Mr Kahiga said he personally called some MPs from Mt Kenya region, who were among the 291 who had signed the motion, hoping to persuade them to support the deputy president.
“They kept me waiting at a hotel in Nairobi and never showed up,” the governor said.
On Thursday, lawyer Danston Omari, speaking on behalf of Mr Nyaberi, who has also lodged a case in court challenging the public participation exercise on the ouster of Mr Gachagua, confirmed the attempts to reconcile the two leaders.
“There has been concerted efforts by different church leadership to find peace between the DP and the president but these efforts have failed,” Mr Omari told Nation.
Mr Omari said the reason why the SDA leaders had moved to court was that they felt that the only option left to save the country after the church-led initiatives had failed was through the courts.
The petition by SDA church is scheduled for directions on Friday, Mr Omari added. The request by the SDA church is for the Chief Justice Martha Koome to form a bench that will hear the petition.
Nation reached out to bishops Sapit and Muheria but the two church leaders did not respond to calls and SMS.
It has also emerged that as the trial of the deputy president begins next week at the Senate, efforts were still ongoing to reconcile the two leaders before the final vote.
But the renewed efforts are not going down well with some members of the National Assembly which overwhelmingly voted to send Mr Gachagua to stand trial in the Senate.
Insiders within the presidency have confided in Nation.Africa that the MPs have told the President they would not entertain a deal that stalls the impeachment process.
“We will not accept any form of dialogue. Any truce should have been done before the matter found itself on the floor of the House. The National Assembly has dispensed off the same and now the Senate is seized of the matter,” argued a UDA MP who did not want to be named.
“We were thrown under the bus on the Finance Bill, 2024 and left with egg on our faces. Any push back now will completely shatter the credibility of MPs. Let the President allow us to handle this matter ourselves to the end," the MP said.
When contacted, National Assembly Majority Whip Silvanus Osoro said the deputy president’s press conference on the eve of National Assembly proceedings had hardened members’ resolve to kick him out.
“The DP insulted Parliament and should be ready to face the consequences. Let the President not dare to intervene, same to the clergy,” said Mr Osoro.
“Let the independent bodies discharge their constitutional duties as required. We have discharged our role in the National Assembly, let him have his day with the Senate,” he said.
