Evils exist in this world and some of them, history whispers, are tragically necessary. The atomic bombs that ended World War II. The unholy alliance of Allied powers-including the monster Stalin-to crush an even bigger one in Hitler. Even Jesus called Judas’ betrayal a necessary evil. Without the knife in the back, no resurrection story. No redemption arc.
But then there are the unnecessary evils. The ones that add zero value, zero lessons and zero upside. Pure dead weight dressed up as drama.
Enter Rigathi Gachagua, Kenya’s former Deputy President. The man who rode the trappings of power for three glittering years before his spectacular impeachment ouster. Kenyans, especially us Gen Zs, want Ruto gone yesterday. But Gachagua? Brother, he is not the option. He is the living, breathing proof that “anyone but Ruto” is a dangerously lazy slogan. He is the very embodiment of the rot we marched against in 2024. A hypocrite so polished he could sell ice to Eskimos and call it climate justice. A clown in a three-piece suit who somehow keeps getting laughs while the country burns.
Give the man his flowers though-the man talks. Yesterday, Easter Sunday 2026, Gachagua stood in a church in Gatundu North and dropped another payload on the fuel scandal rocking the Energy ministry. Sh500 million in cash allegedly recovered from suspects’ homes. Money that supposedly vanished into thin air. Officials forced to resign. Ruto allegedly taking personal control. The kind of “secret sauce” only an insider-turned-outsider can serve piping hot.
The DCI, predictably, clapped back within hours: claims “false, unfounded and malicious.” They’re reviewing his speech for hate speech, ethnic contempt and incitement. Translation: watch it. Gachagua’s response? Classic. “Nishikeni kama mnaweza!” (Arrest me if you can!). The man dares the system he once helped run. It’s entertaining. It’s truthful. It’s also peak Gachagua-the guy who will expose the game while conveniently forgetting he was once the co-pilot.
Because let’s not pretend. This is the same Gachagua who, during the first deadly wave of Gen Z protests, looked straight into cameras and basically said: You can’t just come to the streets and expect the police to kiss you. A not-so-veiled defense of live bullets, abductions and the whole “order above all” playbook. Fast-forward to 2026: same mouth, new script. Now he’s the self-appointed protector of the very Gen Zs he once dismissed as reckless. The about-turn is so sharp it could cause whiplash.
That’s not evolution. That’s a facade. A man who spent years inside the system helping build the very machine that shot at us, now rebranding as revolutionary because the machine finally spat him out.
Here’s the unnecessary part, the part that makes him worse than the “necessary evil” some are trying to paint Ruto as. Imagine a ballot paper tomorrow with only two names: William Ruto vs Rigathi Gachagua. (Yes, nearly impossible thanks to the impeachment, but humor me.) Ruto would win in a landslide. Not because Ruto is suddenly a saint. Ruto is consistent in his brand of chaos-the hustler who never pretended to be anything else. Gachagua? He’s the guy who was right there beside him, enjoying the same perks, defending the same excesses, then got impeached and discovered his inner activist overnight.
It’s like being forced to choose between cyanide and arsenic, except one of them spent years telling you cyanide is actually a vitamin and is now selling you the antidote at a markup. Both toxic. One just has better PR and a victim complex.
We Gen Zs aren’t stupid. We see the game. Gachagua’s “truth bombs” are delicious precisely because they confirm everything we already suspected about this government. But confirmation isn’t leadership. Spilling tea isn’t a manifesto. Being loud after you’ve been sidelined isn’t courage; it’s convenience.
The unnecessary evil isn’t the one that ends a war. It’s the one that pretends to fight the war it helped start, then demands a medal for switching sides.
Ruto must go; that much is non-negotiable. But replacing one unnecessary evil with another isn’t revolution. It’s just rebranding the same old circus.
Gachagua isn’t our savior. He’s the cautionary tale. The man who proves that sometimes the enemy of your enemy is still very much your enemy, just wearing a slightly different colored suit and a fresh coat of “I’ve seen the light” paint.
We deserve better than necessary evils.
And we damn sure deserve better than the unnecessary ones.
