Rigathi Gachagua’s politics of attack and exclusion are facing growing resistance, with Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome delivering a stinging public rebuke on September 16, 2025, in Kandara, Murang’a County.
During a meet-the-people tour in Muruka village, Wahome dismissed Gachagua’s weekend claims that she was nothing more than a “flower girl” in Cabinet, only retained for her children’s salaries, and sidelined by President William Ruto. The crowd roared as Wahome declared: “Aliyekuwa naibu rais Rigathi Gachagua anachokoza wengine akifikiria mimi nitamwogopa. Mimi si mmoja wa wale wanamwogopa.”
Her sharp retort cut deeper: “He said I have no voice in government. Let him go home alone. I’m in government to serve Kenyans, not for my children. They are grown and working.”
The confrontation underscores a broader pattern. Since his impeachment in 2024, Gachagua has turned his fire on any Kikuyu leader who remains in government, branding them traitors or puppets. He has attacked Ndindi Nyoro, Kimani Ichung’wah, Mwangi Kiunjuri — and now Wahome — for refusing to bow to his tribal politics.
Yet critics ask: Did Gachagua expect every Kikuyu leader to abandon government the day he was impeached? His behavior, they say, is naive, divisive, and reeks of bitterness.
Wahome warned him bluntly: “Keep my name out of your politics. Tafuta kura kwa kusema yale utafanya.” Her words echoed what many in Mt Kenya increasingly feel — that a leader who thrives on insults and witch-hunts cannot claim to unite a region, let alone lead a nation.
For a man now declaring his 2027 presidential ambitions, Gachagua’s politics of resentment may be his greatest undoing.
