Former Kenyan Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has officially resigned from president William Ruto’s led ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party.
In a letter addressed to the UDA Secretary-General on Monday, May 12, 2025, Gachagua indicates that he was resigning with immediate effect.
“By a copy of this letter, you are notified that I have officially resigned from the UDA Party with immediate effect. I have made this decision in knowledge of the ideals of the Party we believed in, and so were millions of Kenyans, but now it has turned out as the most dangerous political moment for the people and the Republic of Kenya in the retrogressive philosophy of an unfit class to govern our nation,” Gachagua states.
Gachagua further notes that the party has exhausted and wasted a Kenyan moment to take off economically, socially and politically, citing 12 sectors of the economy, which he says have failed.
The former deputy president now says the purpose which the party set out to do back in 2022 was a lie, and that no nation can be built on lies.
“It will be recalled that, while affirming the Kenya Kwanza Manifesto, our presidential candidate then (in 2022), said, “It is my firm conviction that the unity, stability and prosperity of our country lies not in the greatness of men but in the strength of our institutions. Our United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party is founded on the ideology that the national aspirations – justice, peace, freedom, prosperity that we pray for, as we sing our national anthem, is a covenant that binds us to political inclusion and economic empowerment of all Kenyans.” As a party, and millions of Kenyans, we believed and trusted him and this statement. It was a lie. No nation can be built on a litany of lies,” he remarks.
Among the sectors that Gachagua lists that President William Ruto’s UDA has failed in include economic transformation through the hustler fund, agricultural transformation, housing and resettlement, healthcare, service economy and the development of ICT and digital superhighways.
The other agenda Gachagua says the administration has deviated from are sports development, environmental protection and climate change, education, women’s affairs and social protection.
“The dream for the Hustler Fund, as it were, was to lift Kenyans at the bottom of the economic pyramid. What business can Ksh500 start sustainably?” Gachagua quips.
The move comes just a day after Gachagua promised to end the months of anxiety from his supporters after he said that he would be launching his own political party this week.
“This coming week I will launch my party and there will be a huge party afterwards, and I hope you will all attend,” Gachagua said during a church service in Juja on Sunday, May 11, 2025.