Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua (left) and NIS Director General Noordin Haji (right). IMAGE FILE | Courtesy
In Summary:
1) Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua demands the resignation of NIS Director General Noordin Haji.
2) Gachagua criticizes the NIS for failing to provide actionable intelligence, contributing to Tuesday’s fatal protests.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Wednesday called for the resignation of National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director General Noordin Haji, accusing him of providing disjointed intelligence to President William Ruto.
During a live press conference, Gachagua claimed that the NIS had failed in its intelligence gathering, which could have prevented the deadly protests on Tuesday.
Gachagua expressed his opinion that 13 NIS assistant directors had been removed from the intelligence service.
He emphasized that Haji, the former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), bears the largest responsibility for the protests due to his failure to gather accurate intelligence, which led to Ruto receiving inactionable information.
“We have a dysfunctional NIS that has exposed the government and the people of Kenya. Had the NIS briefed the president two months ago about how the people of Kenya feel about the Finance Bill 2024, so many Kenyans would not have died. There would have been no mayhem, but they slept on the job,” Gachagua stated.
Gachagua further claimed that a day before his press conference, Haji was trying to assemble a team to drive a propaganda campaign and blame the chaos on certain targeted leaders, including himself and former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He added that President Ruto had cleared the air by admitting that the protests were caused by Kenyans’ anger over the Finance Bill.
According to Gachagua, the unprecedented storming of Parliament by Kenyans was a clear indication of the failure of the intelligence system.
He also lauded Generation Z for making their voices heard and called on them to establish a structure for engaging with the government on key issues affecting them.
“I want to call upon Gen Z to tell us whom to engage because they are tribeless, leaderless, and have no organizational structure, but we would like to engage with the right people,” he said.
He cautioned young leaders against hastily gathering allies claiming to represent Gen Z in discussions with the Executive over the failed Finance Bill.
Gachagua urged the younger generation to come up with a structured approach to engage the government on critical issues affecting them.