NYERI, Kenya – Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has placed responsibility for the 2023 Northlands farm invasion squarely on President William Ruto, saying any actions involving former President Uhuru Kenyatta could only have been authorised by the Head of State.
Speaking during an interview with the Obinna Show, Gachagua sought to clear his name over widespread speculation that he played a role in the controversial attack on the Kenyatta family’s private property.
The incident saw a group of unidentified assailants storm the expansive farm, loot livestock, and set sections of it ablaze in broad daylight.
The brazen attack, which unfolded during a wave of anti-government protests led by opposition leader Raila Odinga, was widely viewed as politically motivated.
Police were notably slow to respond, fuelling suspicion that the operation may have been sanctioned at the highest levels of government.
But Gachagua denied any involvement and said protocol does not permit any senior official—apart from the sitting president—to direct actions involving a retired head of state.
“Any issue to do with a retired president, whether positive or negative, can only be undertaken with the full authority of the current president,” Gachagua said. “I was just a principal assistant to the president. I had no authority over a president. That is his peer—they are at the same level.”
He added: “So, any mistreatment done to Uhuru Kenyatta, his property in Northlands, anything done—whether positive or negative—has the full authority of President William Ruto. Because that’s the way protocol works.”
Gachagua also confirmed that the decision to withdraw security detail from the former president and his mother, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, was also made directly by President Ruto.
The Northlands raid, which has yet to yield any significant prosecutions, remains a sore point in Kenya’s political history.
Critics accused the state of looking the other way as one of the country’s most high-profile private properties came under attack.
While Ruto’s administration has largely stayed silent on the incident, Gachagua’s latest comments are the clearest indication yet that the decision-making rested at the very top—and that internal tensions within the Kenya Kwanza coalition may still be simmering beneath the surface.
