Ruto allies claim Nancy Gitau, NIS out to frustrate them over their political stand
The Deputy President William Ruto’s camp has rattled backers of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga after his surrogates, once again dragged influential political strategist Nancy Gitau, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) into their political misfortunes, claiming they are part of a team deployed to harass them.
The Tanga Tanga camp, led by Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua, has claimed Jubilee Party, through Gitau, was working with the security agencies, particularly NIS, to frustrate them for not supporting ongoing plans to revive the party and Raila's presidential ambitions.
The war against her by the team gives a peek into the vital and powerful role Gitau, who served as a Director in Political Affairs in the Grand Coalition government and in 2015 quit her position in Uhuru's political advisory unit following internal rivalry between defunct The National Alliance and United Republican Party, could be playing in managing Uhuru's succession politics, a role she also successfully played during President Mwai Kibaki's exit in 2012.
Rigathi, who is battling a case of corruption relating to the theft of approximately Ksh7 billion to alleged dubious government tenders, over the weekend made unsubstantiated claims that NIS was financing Gitau’s operations to harass Ruto’s backers and that the former head of President Kenyatta’s political advisory unit, had forwarded names of certain MPs to NIS to have them arrested by DCI and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
"We want to address a lady called Nancy Gitau, she has an office at Gigiri whose operations are being funded by the National Intelligence Service and they plan to harass the DP and those who are supporting him.
"We know the names of people who she has said should be arrested by DCI and KRA if they will not attend the Jubilee NDC scheduled to take place on February 26," the MP claimed.
One of the political lobby groups-Mount Kenya Youth Caucus which backs Uhuru and Raila through is chairman Linford Mutembei criticized the Kenya Kwanza alliance for "unnecessarily dragging" the media-shy Gitau and security agencies “into their political misfortunes” by claiming that she was using NIS and other agencies to fight Ruto and his supporters.
“That Gitau is working with NIS, DCI and KRA to deal with Ruto allied MPs are callous, a show of malice and hatred toward her just because she is not supporting Ruto. The party has its programs being spearheaded by its leader Uhuru and his strategists, and neither NIS, DCI and KRA got anything to do with it to warrant such claims against Nancy. That is just a plot by Tanga
Tanga to seek sympathy because their fortunes have been dwindling,” Mutembei said.
He added: “NIS, DCI and KRA are independent. There are many people who have fallen victim to their operations, not because of their political stance but after investigations established that they have engaged in various criminal activities only that their camp has attracted many people with integrity issues.”
This is not the first time the DP camp is training its gun on Gitau, In 2015, they accused her of fixing the second-in-command at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague. Additionally, in 2019 Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi pointed an accusing finger at her, claiming that she played a key role in an alleged secret plot to assassinate DP Ruto.
The DP has in the past claimed that his supporters are facing increased attention from State organs for all the bad reasons, saying the State was intimidating his supporters to derail his presidential campaign by having them arrested and charged over various criminal aspects, mostly corruption.
Ruto said that State institutions such as DCI and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the National Government Administration were being used to instill fear in his allies, whereby several politicians in his back are being threatened that they would be taken to court for alleged graft-related offences, face tax evasion litigation, or they’ll be investigated by the EACC, and consequently arraigned.
He claimed they were being subjected to all that simply because they are affiliated to him, and not because they are involved in any wrongdoing, claims that the state agencies have persistently rubbished.
