Rigathi Gachagua’s latest political manoeuvre is being read not as strategy — but as a calculated attempt to rebuild the personal empire he lost after impeachment and Gachagua is aggressively pushing Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka of the united opposition as the preferred 2027 presidential candidate not out of conviction, but convenience: Kalonzo is the only contender Gachagua believes he can control, bully and politically remote–manage.
Gachagua has been privately telling Mt Kenya leaders that if they “rally behind Kalonzo to chase Ruto away,” they must deliver every elective seat in the region to his DCP network — MPs, senators, governors, women reps and MCAs. This, analysts say, would hand him near-total dominance in Mt Kenya, allowing him to walk into a future government demanding half of all ministerial appointments.
It is the same lament he repeated after his downfall: that his “biggest mistake” was supporting William Ruto in 2022 without a pre-election pact to protect his personal influence. Yet that claim crumbles under scrutiny — Mt Kenya today still holds multiple Cabinet slots and key PS positions. The only person who lost power was Gachagua himself — to his own tribal brinkmanship.
Now, he is trying to export that same brand of divisive politics into the opposition. Reports indicate he is blocking former Interior CS Fred Matiang’i from consideration because Matiang’i does not carry tribal baggage and cannot be bullied — and because being named Jubilee Deputy Party Leader closes the door to Gachagua’s dream of a one-man Mt Kenya command structure.
Kalonzo risks walking into a trap: a presidency negotiated on blackmail, not unity.
The question now is not whether Gachagua has a plan — but whether Kenya is willing to repeat a mistake twice.
