Gachagua: Chaos witnessed in Kenya were unneccessary

The Star Kenya

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has said the violence witnessed on Tuesday during the Finance Bill demonstrations was unnecessary. https://shorturl.at/r9DDF

Transcript

00:00As a government, we have established institutions to ensure we not only listen to Kenyans but

00:06also genuinely understand their concerns.

00:10We invest significant resources in these institutions, particularly the National Intelligence Service

00:16for this purpose.

00:18It is clear there has been a failure in the intelligence and advice we are receiving,

00:23particularly concerning crucial government policies.

00:29The President of the Republic of Kenya today has admitted that it has come to his attention

00:36that the people of Kenya did not want anything to do with the Finance Bill 2024.

00:48The President has now agreed that we need to listen to the people.

00:57And I sympathise with my boss, President William Ruto, because this information was not available

01:02to him.

01:03I know President William Ruto had he known two months ago that the people of Kenya did

01:11not want anything to do with the Finance Bill 2024, he would not have asked his parliamentary

01:18party to push it through.

01:22Yet we have an organisation paid by the public to give him and government such information.

01:30And that is where the problem is.

01:33We have a dysfunctional National Intelligence Service that has exposed the President, the

01:39government and the people of Kenya.

01:42Had the National Intelligence Service briefed the President two months ago about how the

01:48people of Kenya feel about the Finance Bill 2024, so many Kenyans would not have died,

01:56property would not have been destroyed, offices would not have been touched, there would have

02:01been no mayhem.

02:03But they slept on the job.

02:07It had to take people to die, property to be destroyed, protests across the country

02:15for the President to know the truth of what the people of Kenya feel.

02:20Yet there is an organisation paid for by the public to brief the President and the government

02:28about the feeling of the Kenyan people.

02:34Officers of the National Police Service have told me in confidence they did not get advance

02:42intelligence briefs about the magnitude of the protests in Eldoret, in Kericho, in Nairobi,

02:49in Gidurai, in Embu, in Nyeri.

02:54Since independence, there has been protests around Parliament.

02:59Never have protesters invaded and gotten inside Parliament.

03:05Senior officers have told me in confidence they did not have an advance intelligence

03:10brief about the intensity of the protests so that they prepare in advance.

03:16The National Intelligence Service slept on the job.

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