Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s latest political tactics are setting the country on a dangerous path. Instead of offering solutions to everyday Kenyan problems, Gachagua has resorted to politics of division, fear, and polarisation. His strategy is simple but harmful — create an “us vs them” mentality to rally support, regardless of the damage it causes to national unity.
What Gachagua is doing is not leadership. It’s political vandalism. He is fueling tribal suspicion, attacking those who hold different views, and openly threatening artists, professionals, and leaders who don’t fall in line. This is not how democratic politics should be practiced in a mature country like Kenya.
The kind of populist, inflammatory rhetoric Gachagua is using undermines Kenya’s democratic progress. We’ve built a super democracy where freedom of expression, diversity of opinion, and peaceful coexistence are protected. But now, Gachagua wants to roll that back and take us back to dark, dangerous politics of fear and identity-based mobilisation.
This is the same pattern we’ve seen in failed democracies: a leader rises on a platform of grievance, blames everyone else, divides the people, and hopes to rule over the chaos. That is the playbook Gachagua seems to be following. And make no mistake — it could burn this country.
Kenya needs leaders who unite, not divide. Leaders who bring solutions, not shout threats. We cannot allow one man’s bitterness to pull the whole nation backward. Gachagua’s brand of politics is outdated, selfish, and dangerous.
It is time to call out this toxic behaviour for what it is — a threat to peace, democracy, and national cohesion. Kenya is bigger than Rigathi Gachagua’s ambitions. We must protect it from leaders who thrive on chaos.
