Gachagua labels Ruto’s presidency ‘imperial’, calls hustler fund a ‘lost cause’

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 11 — Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has accused President William Ruto of presiding over an “imperial presidency” and described the government’s flagship Hustler Fund as a “lost cause” in a scathing four-year assessment of the Kenya Kwanza administration. In his much-publicised “Ruto at 4” accountability statement delivered in Nairobi on Tuesday, Gachagua said Ruto had betrayed the covenant made with Kenyans in the 2022 election. Gachagua contrasted Ruto’s campaign promise to prevent a return to an imperial presidency with what he described as the reality four years into his administration.

“When he was presenting this choice, we did not know that he was presenting the latter. Today, we have an imperial presidency, economic apartheid and power under a ruthless dictator,” Gachagua said. The former Deputy President said the assessment was intended to measure the administration’s promises against its delivery and outcomes.

He accused Ruto of eroding democratic gains, weakening institutions and swallowing political parties, including the opposition. Gachagua also turned his attention to the Hustler Fund, one of the administration’s flagship programmes aimed at expanding affordable credit to ordinary Kenyans. He said the fund had reportedly disbursed Sh87 billion to 28 million people but questioned whether such lending had achieved its intended purpose.

Gachagua said some beneficiaries had received loans of as little as Sh500, arguing that such amounts were insufficient to establish or expand sustainable businesses. “This is simply a lost cause,” he said. Gachagua further accused the administration of failing to deliver on its promise to lower the cost of living, strengthen small businesses and place young people at the centre of economic transformation.

He said the government had instead increased the financial pressure on households through taxation, higher fuel prices and other statutory deductions. The assessment sets the stage for a series of attacks by Gachagua on the administration’s record on the economy, public finance, governance, security, agriculture and other sectors. Gachagua concluded that the Kenya Kwanza plan had failed, describing it as “hollow and deceptive.”

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 11-Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has delivered a scathing assessment of President William Ruto’s first four years in office, accusing him of turning Kenya into an “imperial presidency” while declaring key government programmes such as the Hustler Fund failures. Gachagua said Ruto had abandoned constitutional democracy and the institutional reforms promised during the 2022 presidential campaign, instead centralizing power and presiding over what he described as lawlessness, economic hardship, and institutional capture. “It is not about personalities; it is about evaluating promises with performance, commitments with delivery, and expectations with outcomes,” Gachagua said while presenting his accountability statement and performance audit of the Ruto administration.