Former Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi has unleashed a blistering assault on impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, tearing into his push to corral Mt Kenya into a one-party fiefdom.
Speaking at the opening of St Peter Kaunjira Church, Muturi thundered that Kenya’s Constitution forbids Gachagua’s dream of ethnic monopoly. “I’ve heard some say Mt Kenya must rally behind one party. Let me be clear: that is a firm NO!” he declared to cheers.
Reclaiming leadership of Mwai Kibaki’s Democratic Party in June, Muturi cast DP as the antidote to what he branded Gachagua’s toxic tribal empire. He said DP’s roots lay in accountability and stability, not ethnic coercion.
Gachagua, impeached in 2024 amid graft scandals and divisive “shareholder” politics, is plotting a comeback under his Democratic Congress Party (DCP) with the slogan “one man, one vote, one shilling” – derided as Kikuyu supremacy. Once Ruto’s enforcer, Riggy G is now accused of turning Mt Kenya into a hostage bloc under his thumb.
Muturi, still bitter over abductions that cost him his cabinet job and targeted his son, ruled out reconciliation with Ruto but saved his sharpest fire for Gachagua. “I entered into a coalition with William Ruto, not Rigathi Gachagua,” he said, dismissing him as a parasitic opportunist.
As rivals Kithure Kindiki and Ndindi Nyoro position themselves, analysts say Muturi’s revival of Kibaki’s DP could rally Mt Kenya against Gachagua’s authoritarian project.
The choice is stark: democracy’s revival – or Rigathi’s dark grip.
