Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua on Friday night revealed fresh details on how he fell out with President William Ruto.

He said the fallout started around October 2023 and which led to a year of toxic relationship between the head of state and him (Gachagua) as the deputy.

This led to Mr Gachagua's impeachment in October 2024, now him saying "I was high-headed as accused and I was not ready to be pushed over".

Speaking on Obinna Live TV show, Mr Gachagua dismissed it as a silly joke that it is rumoured he was at one time slapped at State House.

"It was not me who was said that he was slapped at State House. Who slaps who? Me? If anyone dared do that I would instantly square it out with him or her regardless of who he/she is," Mr Gachagua said.

Mr Gachagua said he had adopted a life of making it crystal clear that he was not ready to be a pushover by President Ruto as his deputy.

“You people joke too much. No one can slap me. Even when I was DP, Dr Ruto would shout at me and I would shout back. He would bang the table at me and I would bang it back. So?” he posed.

He said he lived with Dr Ruto as his deputy in the maxim that "you do me I do you and it served me well".

He said the allegations that he was high headed and sometimes disrespectful to his boss are “somehow true”.

"I'm not the guy you push around, I don't get pushed around, I occupy my space. I grew up a spoilt child...you know, I was the last born of my mother's children, I was momma's boy," he said.

Mr Gachagua said when he adores, he does so with unlatched doors. 

"I'm not all that disrespectful. You got show me disrespect for me to reciprocate in kind. Take a case of my mother Ms Martha Kirigo...I would cook chapati for her, wash her feet, massage her legs...She is the inspiration behind what you see in me..she hated weaklings around her...may she continue resting in peace since 2019, I miss her," he said.

He says it is his mother who inculcated in him the culture of refusing to buy fear from whatever quarters.

"There was a time I was beaten up by a boy my age mate while playing in the village and I went crying to my mother. Instead of consoling me, she bit me up again. She asked me what the boy had that I did not have. Told me to go out there and fight," he said.

Mr Gachagua added that "she admonished me stating that if I always ran to her crying, I risked being overrun by the cruel world...That I too had to fight for my space. That changed my life".

Mr Gachagua said looking at how gruffly President Ruto was treating all around him, "I knew the spirit of my mother would greatly be disturbed if I surrendered to be a pushover and a weakling".

He said his father only taught him on how never to fight with women and on how to never take life too seriously or too lightly.

"My father taught me never to fight with women. He told me to always back down when their anger is up since by doing so makes them also back down and peace is found," he said.

Mr Gachagua added that "my father also taught me to never to take life too seriously neither too lightly...just be there in the middle…and if something is not working, abandon it and pursue something else".

He said his father died aged 105..."I feel I have his genes and I think I will do 110... I'm 60 today so...some 50 years to go".

He said his impeachment found him prepared for a fight and that is why he refused to take President Ruto's offer of resigning as a soft landing.

"It's not Ruto who had employed me, it was Kenyans. President Ruto had no business telling me to resign. His was to use his loyalists to impeach me. It's yours to weigh whether I've staged a fight or not, it's for you to decide whether I've been a pushover," he said.

He said looking back at his short stint as Deputy President makes him hate himself for the way he was taken in for the humiliation.

"Don't joke with President Ruto...his ability to con, deceive, and infiltrate is unmatched. It is a living wonder how he managed to pull a fast one on me, my community, the clergy, and the country," he said.

He said he still retains President Ruto photos hanging in his living room.

"Ruto was a frequent visitor here..my wife has cooked for him countless times as he came here many times asking me for my support. I decided to keep his photos hanging in my home even after the impeachment as symbols of betrayal," he said.

He said "the man I invested huge amount of wealth, emotions and risks of making enemies I had no business making mobilised his friends to impeach me". 

Mr Gachagua said the photos are to him, his wife and two(2) sons a constant reminder of how cautious they should be when engaging people.

"Conmanship and deception for Ruto is in a class of its own…he would even pray for us in my house yet I have a pastor as a wife. I didn't see it coming. I even supported him without any written agreement. And then bang! It was my first time someone was taking me in so easily," he said.

Mr Gachagua said sometimes he watches Ruto on TV and he is left bewildered.

"I cannot imagine that this is the Ruto who would cry in my house. Torrents of tears...a grown up man crying made me feel for him. There was a time I was under immense pressure to go back to the camp of Uhuru Kenyatta. Ruto panicked and would come to me crying not to abandon him. He would say that without me he was done. He would beseech me to remain by his side," he said.

But he said president Ruto has taught him a lifetime lesson of never to trust anyone on face value regardless the emotions attached. 

"Even as I craft an alliance to make him one term president, which by God I will, there is never anytime I will agree on verbal trust.

Everything we agree about must be in black and white, with witnesses as well as with commissioners of oath present who will make enough copies for future reference," he said.

He said "Ruto conned me for my support for him through tears. He made me abandon my kinsman Uhuru Kenyatta... I will apply due diligence in vetting characters to associate with. Right from lineage to current character traits".

He said the problem with Kenya is President Ruto and unless he is changed, there is nothing good that will come out his government. 

"He is the government, he at the same time advises his government and also oversights it...Reason why he has sacked more than half his first cabinet and nothing has changed. Ruto advises his advisors on how to advise him. This is a zero sum game presidency and government," he said.

Mr Gachagua said "president Ruto is talented in lying to a point that he can wake up one day and announce he is from speaking with people who died nearly a decade ago, lie that all abductions and extrajudicial killings' victims have been reunited with their families and auction the country in the name of developing Kenya".

Mr Gachagua said "president Ruto has lied so many times to a point he has become the victim of believing in his own lies".