He mourned the late Wangari, hailing her as a family matriarch who took good care of the Gachagua family.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has announced the death of Leah Wangari Muriuki, who was the elder sister of his family.
In a statement on X on Thursday, June 27, the second-in-command mourned the late Wangari, hailing her as a family matriarch who took good care of the Gachagua family.
“I am saddened to receive news of the passing on of our eldest sister Leah Wangari Muriuki. Leah has been our Mother and the family Matriarch; she has taken good care of the larger Gachagua Family after the death of our father and our two mothers,” he mourned.
“We are devastated by the loss of this family head. My deepest condolences to her husband, her children and grandchildren.”
The late Leah Wangari Muriuki. /RIGATHI GACHAGUA.X
Gachagua further said it was a difficult week for him as a national leader and family man following the death of Wangari.
“This is a very difficult week for me as a national leader and a family man. May the Lord heal our Nation and families,” he added.
Wangari’s death comes less than two years after the death of Jack Reriani, Gachagua’s brother. He passed away on September 24, 2022, after abusing alcohol while celebrating the Kenya Kwanza victory after the 2022 polls.
“My elder brother Jackson Reriani was an alcoholic. I tried to talk to him to stop alcohol abuse and even take him to hospital but he would relapse and go back to alcohol.
“After we won the 2022 elections, he took alcohol to celebrate the victory. He died,” said Gachagua on March 18, 2024.
Gachagua was born in a family of nine siblings – four brothers, and five sisters. However, he revealed in an interview with Inooro TV this year that alcoholism had consumed all his brothers.
“When you see me committed to battling this culture of death that is substance abuse, it is because it has made my own family weep. All homesteads have scars of alcoholism and mine is not exceptional,” Gachagua said.
“My brother Dr Wachira Gachagua died of alcoholism He was practicing medicine in South Africa. He took too much of the spirits as his wife warned him to no avail. I went for his body in 2012 and buried him. In 2014 my brother Nderitu Gachagua died of resultant pancreatic cancer.”
Gachagua lamented that the loss of his siblings to alcoholism made him a very lonely man in his father’s compound surrounded by graves brought about by alcohol.
He said he also had taken to alcohol consumption until his wife, Pastor Dorcas Rigathi, talked him out of it.
“Had I not heeded her, chances are that I would also be dead and not be the current Deputy President,” he said.
