Ruto allies vow to oust DP in next polls

A section of Kenya Kwanza politicians have vowed to ensure that Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua will serve for only one term just as he did when he was Mathira MP before President William Ruto picked him as his running mate in the 2022 general elections.

The resolve by allies of President Ruto opens a new battlefield in the two-year-old presidency which is already embroiled in a simmering fallout between Gachagua and Ruto amid reports that the two no longer see eye to eye though they project unity for   cameras.

But even revelations came to the limelight over the cause of the fallout between Gachagua and his boss, reports indicated that a Senator from Mt Kenya region has been burning the midnight oil to reconcile the two.

Sources intimated to People Daily that the Senator, who has been acting as the go-between the President and Gachagua, has organised a delegation of elders from Mt Kenya and Rift Valley to visit State house once the head of state returns from his USA tour as part of the efforts to reconcile them.

Those in the President Ruto camp accuse the DP of being a bully and arrogant, working with former President Uhuru Kenyatta, being behind the Limuru 3 conference, his one man-one vote-one shilling mantra, divisive and undermining other leaders.

They also claim that the DP has started planting some candidates against MPs perceived not to be in his camp, citing his bromance with former Nyeri town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu whom they claim is out to ensure he returns in 2027.

And the group that is largely oscillating around Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, claim that Gachagua’s outbursts are divisive and a threat to President Ruto’s re-election in 2027.

Deputy President Gachagua is facing growing hostility within the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) despite his assertion that he is the senior-most leader within Mt Kenya region to thinly mean that he commands the vote-rich region to support President Ruto.

Generational change

But Ruto’s allies, some occupying powerful offices are plotting what they are terming as generational change, a move meant to oust Gachagua from the Deputy President’s office in the next general election. Those behind the scheme are said to be fully out to replace all the old guards, including Gachagua with a youthful lot.

Gachagua first set himself up for the political fights he is facing when, last year in October he claimed that the Kenya Kwanza government is a shareholders’ entity that belongs to the people who voted for it, majorly the central and Rift Valley regions.

Later, Ruto while on a tour to Siaya county, an opposition backyard, disowned Gachagua’s shareholding remarks saying that it is primitive and backward for anybody to imagine that any region of Kenya cannot get development on accounts of how they voted.

The exchanges marked the first disagreement between the two in the public domain.

For the last two months, DP Gachagua has been standing on shaky ground as politicians allied to President Ruto continue to undermine his authority as the second in command.

One of Gachagua’s open critic, Laikipia East NP Mwangi Kiunjuri speaking to People Daily yesterday, said the DP must learn to respect all leaders, irrespective of their standing in society and embrace national unity.    

 “His utterances are divisive and a threat to national unity. He should refrain from agitating for the interests of Mt Kenya alone and undermining other leaders,” Kiunjuri said.   He challenged the DP to publicly state his stand on the Limuru 3 conference that turned into an anti-Ruto rally and threats by his allies to shoot down the proposed Finance Bill 2024,” he said.

Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru is among the new entrants who have joined the anti-Gachagaua bandwagon, after Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro and Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria.

Waiguru took to social media to accuse Gachagua of personalising the office of the Deputy President to fend off rivalry from upcoming politicians.

“While we respect the office of the Deputy President, and indeed any other office of leadership, a progressive democracy does not allow us as occupiers of public leadership offices to personalise them to the extent that it becomes taboo for anyone else to nurture and express ambition to occupy them,” Waiguru said on her X account.

Nyoro, a long-time ally of Ruto since his days as the Deputy President is said to be eyeing the country’s second highest office to become the first leader from Murang’a county to occupy it since independence.

His marketing strategy for this mission is his exemplary performance in the utilisation of the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NGCDF) which has landed him in good books.

Kuria on his part watered down Gachagua’s influence in the Mt Kenya region, by discrediting him as the ultimate Kikuyu community kingpin.

“Seniority in government doesn’t qualify him (Gachagua) as the kingpin. What of those who didn’t vote for him BUT voted for Martha Karua and Raila Odinga’s candidature? Kikuyus are not predictable, are just weigh their leaders before they can make their decisions. People should not fight over such an issue,” he said.

Leaders who spoke on account of anonymity accused the DP of funding the Limuru 3 meeting which turned out to be an anti-Ruto administration movement that also led to the creation of an opposition faction dubbed Haki Coalition.

They claimed that Gachagua and former President Uhuru Kenyatta are now an item after the DP publicly apologised for mud-slinging him and former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta during the last campaigns.

CS Kuria is quoted telling attendees of the Limuru meeting not to go home hungry as there was money given out by sponsors of the meeting.

The legislators alleged that Gachagua is finalising the creation of his party which he will ride on heading to the 2027 elections.

The latest move by Gachagua calling for the implementation of the one-man, one-vote one-shilling formula of sharing national revenue has rattled UDA leadership accusing him of instigating politics of ethnicity. “We are advocating for one man, one vote, one shilling but some of our leaders are not for it. These are traitors who are being used by outsiders to divide us,” Gachagua defended himself on Tuesday.

Gachagua who last week caused a storm after disappearing from the public limelight for seven days has continued calling for unity among the Mt Kenya residents.

Divisive politics

While addressing the public in Kianyaga, Kirinyaga county recently, he reminded them how divisive politics has affected them in the past and warned them from making such mistakes in the future. “In the past, we have allowed ourselves to be divided from where we come from, Nyeri, Nyandarua, Kirinyiga, Meru, Embu, Laikipia, Kiambu and Murang’a. Since 2002, when we became wise, we have been voting as a block where we elected Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta consecutively. “But there are people who are now hell-bent to divide us along the districts that we come from and if we permit that disunity, it shall spell doom on us in the future. As one people we must decide to speak in one voice. We are telling those who are dividing us that we are now wise and we are already aware of their sinister motives,” he said.

Gachagua offered to protect the interests of the region where he assured residents that he would push the government to waiver debt in the coffee sector just like in the sugar cane sector so that farmers of both cash crops are treated equally.