Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has confessed that he dropped his Christian name, Geoffrey, when he joined the administration of late former President Daniel Arap Moi.
Gachagua told participants at the Parliamentary National Prayer Breakfast gathering at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi that he chose the name Rigathi to better connect with his constituency.
“I was baptised and given the name Geoffrey, but because I was going to rule over the people, I needed to change my identity.”
“That’s when I adopted the name Rigathi, which helped me identify with the people I was assigned to rule over,” the DP explained.
The DP was a district officer at the time and rapidly learned that he needed to rule in a way that made him relatable to residents within his authority.
Gachagua, on the other hand, observed that he married a God-fearing lady who prayed for him on a regular basis to demonstrate his devotion to the Christian faith.
“In previous administrations, I was in charge of overseeing the administration of a district, which was a unit of local government.”
“Fortunately, my wife is a pastor, so I don’t have to deal with many problems.” Even at home, she is the one who leads me to pray,” he continued.
Gachagua considers himself a man of faith, and he visited Mt Kenya in March 2023 to pray and thank God for the rain.
From 1992 until 1996, Gachagua worked as a District Officer (DO), where he was responsible for preserving peace and order as well as providing social services to the citizens of his district.
Gachagua was born in Nyeri in 1964 and graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and Political Science.
The DP then worked as a teacher before joining President Moi’s government’s Kenya Police Service as a National Reservist.
He was a police officer for two years before being appointed district officer.
