Rigathi Gachagua’s prolonged stay in Mbeere North has become more than a political strategy — it is now a worrying mirror of the divisive politics he has perfected in Mt Kenya. What began as a by-election campaign has turned into a full-scale occupation, one marked by bitterness, fear-mongering, and tactics that are tearing the community apart.
On Saturday, Gachagua publicly defended why he has refused to leave Mbeere North despite multiple by-elections happening across the country. He claimed he “had to come” to assure residents that the government would not steal their votes. But beneath the emotional language lies a clear pattern: Gachagua thrives where there is tension, and when tension doesn’t exist, he creates it.
The people of Mbeere North, who have lived side by side for decades, are now being drawn into unnecessary hostility. Reports of clan-based political mobilization — a signature hallmark of Gachagua’s style — are surfacing, leaving locals anxious about rising suspicion and division. Instead of uniting voters around ideas and development, he is pitting neighbour against neighbour, clan against clan, and community against itself.
This is the same script he has used in his tribal politics in Mt Kenya: weaponise fear, delegitimize institutions, claim victimhood, and paint opponents as enemies of “the people.” Now Mbeere North is the latest stage for this performance.
Gachagua’s own words reveal his mindset. He speaks as though he is rescuing a helpless population, yet what he is really doing is planting seeds of mistrust. By the time the Thursday by-election ends, Mbeere North risks being left more fractured, more suspicious, and more divided than it has ever been.
Mbeere deserves leadership that heals — not politics that poisons. And it is time to call out Gachagua’s behaviour for exactly what it is: divisive, damaging, and dangerous.
