After dismissing his government with the exception of Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi who also serves as Foreign Minister and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua whose position is protected by the constitution Ruto announced that a week of talks would start on 15 July aimed at forming a ‘broad-based' unity government...

The large number of kidnappings cases of torture and murders of activists are a grisly reminder of the tactics used by former President Daniel arap Moi the political mentor of Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua under whom dissidents were routinely arrested tortured and killed...

Just weeks after the Supreme Court confirmed Ruto as the elected president in September 2022 then Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji withdrew a raft of high-profile corruption cases including one against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua (Dispatches 19/10/22 Freedom for Ruto allies as prosecutors drop corruption cases)...

Ruto's equally embattled deputy Rigathi Gachagua who has spent recent weeks attempting to cosy up to former President Uhuru Kenyatta to shore up support in the Mount Kenya region may be looking for a new party...

However despite the optics of harmony and consensus at the memorial services in Ulinzi stadium in Nairobi and at his burial in Siaya County which were attended by Ruto Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and others Ogolla who had served two years as Vice-Chief of the KDF was not obviously Ruto's man...

Last July Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua warned diplomats that they would have to sign 'performance contracts to market our products abroad' a broad hint that the government wants them to become salespeople rather than traditional diplomats...

Questions multiply about right-hand man Gachagua Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua's position is in flux ahead of the 2027 election...

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has been gradually sidelined while Musalia Mudavadi with foreign affairs now part of his prime cabinet secretary portfolio has become the key figure in Ruto's government (AC Vol 64 No 21 Ruto's reshuffle rewards the technocrats)...

Corruption cases against Ruto's' cabinet secretary for gender and culture Aisha Jumwa and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua were abandoned by state prosecutors within weeks of Ruto's election victory (Dispatches 19/10/22 Freedom for Ruto allies as prosecutors drop corruption cases)...

Mudavadi poses no threat to Ruto as an election rival though his elevation will cause anxiety for Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua who has spent much of the last year trying to shore up his own influence in the Ruto administration...