Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has broken his silence on why President William Ruto never sends him on international trips.
Speaking in an interview with Mt Kenya media houses, Gachagua revealed that he left the international trips to Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
For a while, Mudavadi has been the one representing the president in high-level international assignments, leaving questions on why his deputy has not been featured in any.
But, according to Gachagua, he chose not to partake in such engagements on his own volition.
The deputy president revealed that he asked the president to allow him to handle local issues including the drug abuse menace that has been eating up youths in the populous Mt Kenya region and delegate the ‘useless’ foreign trips to Mudavadi.
“I see people saying my work has been given to Musalia Mudavadi, that is he is the one going to other countries, while mine is to fight alcohol and drug abuse. Let me tell you, the day I will go abroad I will be going there to pick something reasonable for Kenyans.”
“What do we gain by going to see a country’s president being sworn in?
“I’m not interested in that. I asked my president to allow me to fight this issue of illicit brew and bhang,” he said.
Since assuming office alongside Ruto, Rigathi has been confined to the country as Musalia takes over the assignments beyond the Kenyan borders.
Gachagua’s last trip out of the country was in April this year when he toured Botswana.
The deputy president was in the Southern African country to grace the 2023 Forbes Under 30 summit on behalf of his boss.
