If a single individual could hand President William Ruto victory in 2027 elections, it is Rigathi Gachagua and his politics of Mt Kenya ethnic supremacy.
Ruto’s impeached former DP has immersed himself in ethnic centrism that is a far cry from the politics of the late Raila Odinga, against whom Gachagua would like to model himself. But can this man really be Kenya’s new Raila, even as he dismisses his colleagues in the Opposition as “press-conference leaders”?
Gachagua arrived on the Opposition landscape full of bile, grief and vindictiveness. He plays in this space the politics of anger and crabbiness. He feels betrayed and wronged by President Ruto. His grievance energy, he believes, will make him the new captain of the Opposition, and the next President. Hence, he derides his Opposition colleagues, even in their very presence.
Is Gachagua endowed with the hubris that makes one go for the big fall? Here is the one man who wants Kenyans to make him the President in 2027, and yet he embraces unbridled ethnic exceptionalism. He has said in his latest embarrassing ethnic outburst that his large-fenced Nairobi County is for his party, the Democratic Citizens Party (DCP). He says he has agreed with Wiper Democratic Movement’s Kalonzo Musyoka, that Nairobi governor in 2027 will be from DCP, as will be the senator, and woman county rep. But beyond, DCP will also take 16 out of Nairobi’s 17 parliamentary seats, and the entire Nairobi County Assembly.
Don’t be naive, don’t be deceived. Most elders in Gachagua’s age group do not even mean what they say. He means it. And he feels so much like a man on a mission.
He bullies just about everyone in the Opposition. He pushes them aside with bluster and braggadocio, declaring that he is the new captain of Raila’s Raila-less political ship. And that is where he gets it entirely wrong.
Luo community, whom he wants to inherit from Raila, will not buy into the politics of tribal supremacy. Raila captured the Luo vote by standing for justice for everyone, everywhere. Ndhiwa voted for him; so did Westlands. Raila spoke for the Kikuyu community and all other communities across Kenya, and not for ethnic Luo nationalism.
This man is possibly not serious about the Kikuyu presidency. He might be putting up a show for the sake of making Kenyans believe that his cause is about collective ethnic good. But he is nurturing the seeds of divisions, mistrust, ethnic hatred, and intra-community hostility. His focus is on winning Nairobi County almost entirely by the DCP ethnic card.
He tells us that he is in talks with Kalonzo Musyoka on how to share Nairobi, down to the last MCA slot. Isn’t that a non-starter? And what happens the day — perchance — he gets there? Kenya will always need open-handed leaders. They will be accommodative leaders, who will avail opportunities and space for everyone else. They will be patient leaders who embrace dialogue.
Gachagua’s narrow and noisy populism brings him out as a tribal mobiliser, who can only be a temporary hiccup in Ruto’s heels. However, this low, unifying credential, not just across the country, but even within his Kikuyu community. He will not build winning alliances across Kenya to become a national moral voice, or guide.
The person to get William Ruto out of State House must transcend jingoist tribal majoritarianism and sectional sentiment. Yes, he must speak to injustice across the Kenyan nation, and carry in him/herself gentle humility. Yes, you can become electrifying to a section of our population, without losing the rest of the country. Indeed, if the perception becomes that Gachagua is electrifying the country to dominate Nairobi, then Ruto has it easy in 2027. In short, Gachagua will want to be stuck on the drawing board, if he goes on with his loud, combative, ethnic-grievance game.
Ruto, by contrast, stands for the unity of the country and thinks, from significant experience, in terms of what makes sense. The last thing a nation striving to remove Kenya from poverty wants is ethnic supremacy rhetoric. As we would say here, it is a no, no!
