- Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua demands resignation of NIS DG Noordin Haji over Finance Bill 2024 protests
- Gachagua criticizes NIS for failing to inform President William Ruto about the public sentiment on the Finance Bill 2024
- Calls for resignation of NIS DG Haji and urges the president to recall the 3 directors removed from the agency
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has called for National Intelligence Service Director General Noordin Haji to resign.
DP Gachagua said that the agency failed to inform President William Ruto of the situation regarding public sentiments on the Finance Bill 2024.
In a speech on Wednesday, the deputy president termed Haji as a clueless leader who did not have it took to advise the head of state.
He also said that if President Ruto knew that most Kenyans opposed the bill, he would have intervened.
“How did we get here? We were elected the other day as a popular government, where did the rain begin to beat us?
“President Ruto and I were a darling of the people by listening to them and engaging them and as a government, we have established institutions to ensure we not only listen to Kenyans but genuinely understand their concerns,” the DP said.
Dysfunction in the NIS
Gachagua stated that one of the failures of the NIS was the failure in the intelligence and advice given regarding crucial government policies.
He said that the information gap had put the president in a difficult position, resulting in a public revolt against the Finance Bill 2024.
“Yet we have an organisation paid by the public to give him such kind of information. The problem is that we have a dysfunctional NIS that has exposed the president, the government and the people of Kenya,” the DP stated.
“Had the NIS bried the president two months ago about how the people of Kenya feel about the Finance Bill 2024, so many Kenyans would not have died, property would not have died, offices would not have been torched. There would have been no mayhem. But they slept on the job” he added.
He regretted that it had to take people to die, for the head of state to know the truth.
Lack of advance intelligence briefs to police
Deputy President Gachagua said that senior police officers confided to him that they did not receive advance intelligence reports about the magnitude of the protests in many counties.
He said that since independence there have been many protests in Parliament but not have reached this magnitude to overwhelm police officers and breach security.
“The NIS slept on the job and the problem is simple,” he said.
NIS reshuffle
The DP also announced that Director General Haji made a mistake by reshuffling senior bosses with the NIS.
According to Gachagua, when Haji returned to NIS as DG, he reshuffled individuals who were senior to him when he first left the organisation after he was appointed DPP.
This decision, he explained crippled the capacity of the organisation.
“Three directors were chased away and reassigned to desk jobs in ministries in the government. Thirteen assistant directors, men and women with a proven track record of intelligence collection and analysis were removed from the NIS leaving a shell under a clueless DG who doesn’t have the capacity to run the organisation,” Gachagua added.
He said that the security sector was caught off guard by the intensity and anger of the Kenyan people.
Being out of the country too much
Deputy President Gachagua accused NIS DG Haji of being out of the country on business trips.
“Had Noordin Haji done his job, we would not be where we are today. He has no capacity. He is out of the country most time on business trips. The country is on its own. My boss President William Ruto is exposed that he has to back down and admit that he had heard the people of Kenya yet this matter has been in public domain for the last two months,” he said.
The deputy president added that Haji has to take responsibility for the deaths that occurred during the protests, mayhem, failing President Ruto, the government and the Kenyan people.
Gachagua said that the NIS director should resign and let the president pick a competent DG.
He also appealed to the head of state to recall the 3 directors who were removed from the agency.