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Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has described Vice President Rigathi Gachagua’s criticism of the Director-General of National Intelligence Agency Noordin Haji as irresponsible and an attempt to scapegoat the BroadCast Unitedligence chief.
The governor in a statement on Thursday further said the DP’s rhetoric had made a mockery of the National Assembly, the presidential institution and the security apparatus.
Gachagua on Wednesday called for Haji’s resignation over his alleged failure to brief President William Ruto on the extent of anti-fiscal bill protests on Tuesday that left several people dead.
Speaking at his official residence in Mombasa on Wednesday night, Gachagua said Haji’s failure to brief the president on the nation’s views on the finance bill “exposed the shortcomings of the president, the government and the Kenyan people”.
“If the NIA had briefed the president two months ago on what people thought about the 2024 Finance Bill, so many Kenyans would not have died, properties would not have been destroyed, offices would not have been destroyed. There would have been no chaos, but they are sleeping on the job.”
Governor Nasir said the PDP bears great responsibility for what happened as he chairs all Cabinet subcommittees, including the defunct Finance Bill 2024 subcommittee.
“Gachgua, who has been at the forefront of leading this dialogue until recent political disagreements with partners in the Kenyan Kwanza government, cannot claim to be ignorant of public sentiment regarding excessive taxation,” Governor Gachagua said in a statement Thursday.
He said the DP had chosen to prosecute national security issues in the public domain, in violation of his oath to maintain and protect Kenya’s national unity and security.
He said such statements exposed the country, the presidency and the security apparatus to ridicule and exploitation by its enemies.
“It is unfortunate that the vice president should feel free to discuss sensitive security issues in public, rather than in the constitutional body to which he belongs – the National Security Council. Such claims against Haji at present are a clumsy attempt to find a political scapegoat for Haji’s internal political divisions,” Nasir said.
The governor said the responsibility for the “reckless approach taken by the police towards young people over the past week” should be borne by the Inspector General of Police and not the NIS chief.
“Kenyans have watched with horror as young people have been killed and others abducted while exercising their democratic rights,” he said.
“We call on the vice president to follow the footsteps of the youth and focus on the issues instead of using this solemn moment in history to wage a personal war,” Nasir added.
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