Gachagua Corners Mudavadi, Nakhumicha For Breaking Protocol [VIDEO]

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Monday, September 25 called out a host of government officials for breaking protocol during the flagging-off of Community Health Promoters kits at Uhuru Park, Nairobi.

The event attended by President William Ruto as well as senior state officials and CEOs of private companies saw the officials using the presidential podium during their addresses.

Gachagua expressed his displeasure at the move by leaders to speak from the presidential podium, insisting that they breached protocol to address participants in that way.

They used the podium instead of a separate one that had been used by Governor Sakaja and other leaders during the Afya Nyumbani launch, with Gachagua speaking from the alternative podium.

"I have chosen to speak from here because there has been a serious breach of protocol. The state podium is reserved for the head of state but I want to exonerate all those who have spoken there because it is the President himself who invited them to speak from there and breached protocol,” he argued.

He quickly added that by the President allowing them to speak from his podium, he played a part in the confusion that emerged among guests in attendance.

Defending his sentiments, Gachagua argued that he was raised as a uniformed government officer, and thus knew which places to keep away from, including the podium of his own boss.

“As a man who was in uniform I politely declined the invitation by the president to break protocol, I will speak from here,” Gachagua explained.

He however pardoned them since President Ruto was the one who invited them to speak from the state podium, adding that the Head of State did not mind who broke protocol by using his podium.

Gachagua narrated how Ruto was conducting formal events differently from his predecessors owing to his humble upbringing, thus finding it tough to accept that he was really holding the country's highest seat.

"Those of us who work around the President have a very task of overseeing the transformation of a hustler into a President,” Gachagua stated.

“That is why the President is breaching protocol because the hustler nation propelled one of them to the State House. It is very difficult to get the hustler out of him and that is why he is very comfortable to use the state podium."

Some of the leaders who used the state podium include; Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, Health CS Susan Nakhumicha, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru and Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki.

The President uses the podium while delivering all official speeches. It accompanies the President as he transverses various parts of the country.

The podium has the Coat of Arms and has the ‘Republic of Kenya’ slogan. On the other hand, different governors also have their own special podiums adorned with their respective court of arms and slogans.

President Ruto uses a lectern – the podium he speaks from – the look and feel appear different from that of former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The lectern is inverted V-Shape painted cream, compared to Uhuru's lectern whose design he heavily borrowed from former US President, Barack Obama, with a blue top supported by four metal bars.