Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has announced his official exit from United Democratic Alliance (UDA), as he gears up to launch his new party.

Gachagua has said he is in the race to become the next president should his opposition counterparts deem him the best candidate to unseat the incumbent, William Ruto, in 2027.

He said he will launch his much awaited party in the course of this week and insisted that it will not only comprise leaders from different regions in the country but will also field candidates for all elective positions.

In a letter to UDA Secretary General dated May 12, Gachagua said he has resigned from UDA 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 has turned out as the most dangerous political moment for the people and the Kenya in retrogressive philosophy of unfit class to govern our nation.

“The party has exhausted and wasted a Kenyan moment to take off economically, socially and politically,” he said in the letter.

He said that as they were forming the party, they promised Kenyans of  great transformation including implementing the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).

“The dream for the Hustler Fund as it were, was to lift Kenyans at the bottom of the economic pyramid. What business can Sh500 start sustainably? We had a plan to implement ‘The Plan’. We set five core sectors, namely agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise, housing and settlement, healthcare, digital superhighway and creative economy. The sectors are now a centre of crime with no tangible gains to Kenyans” he stated.

On agricultural reform, Gachagua claimed that farmers have been abandoned despite promises of food sufficiency. “We promised that reforms would be our language… We had promised the country an increased foreign exchange, job creation, lower cost of living and food security. We are being treated to no fertilizer for farmers, and grabbing of agricultural land by the powerful,” he said in his five-page letter.

He expressed disappointment at what he termed a betrayal of the promise to create jobs and provide dignity through affordable housing.

“We pledged to build 250,000 houses annually and employ over 100,000 TVET graduates. Instead, housing has become a personal business venture and a burden on workers’ payslips.”

“Reconciling with my conscious, the party that we founded on principles of good governance, has now turned out to be the worst enemy to the people of Kenya, to the future of our nation, to the sovereignty of our country, and to the contempt of our constitution,” he said. “It is my patriotic duty as a Kenyan believing in the rule of law and millions of others who do so, in the sanctity of our constitution and respecting our fore fathers and freedom fighters in the cause for our great nation that I tender my resignation from a party that does not listen to its people,” he affirmed.

He listed several other areas in which the government had allegedly failed, including healthcare, service economy, ICT,, sports and sporting activities, environment and climate change, education, women agenda, social protection, governance, foreign policy and devolution.

Gachagua said his opposition team mates, including former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i as well as Wiper Party, Democratic Action Party of Kenya and People’s Liberation Party leaders Kalonzo Musyoka, Eugene Wamalwa and Martha Karua respectively, have presidential ambitions but will support the person they all agree on.