By Anderson Ojwang
Mt Kenya, which is expected to be pivotal in next year’s presidential election, is rumbling and opening up for a scramble which may undermine opposition unity.
Already the battle between former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Jubilee Party presidential candidate Dr Fred Matiang’i is causing jitters in the united opposition.
The presence of Matiang’i in Mt Kenya politics has rattled Gachagua’s game plan to have his party, DCP, as the dominant player in the region, but the revival of former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party is causing discomfort.
What is cooking
Jubilee’s Deputy Party Leader Jeremiah Kioni has claimed that Gachagua’s main threat was Matiang’i and not President William Ruto and his UDA party in Mt Kenya.
This could be because Gachagua’s preferred candidate is Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka, while Uhuru prefers Matiang’i, and this could be causing collision.
Kioni said: “The biggest enemy of the DCP party is not Ruto, it is not UDA, but it is Matiang’i. That we have already got it from that side. So we must defend our party and we must defend Matiang’i.”
The Ol Kalou fallout
The Ol Kalou parliamentary by-election has opened the united opposition unity test, and they have faltered, with Kioni claiming Gachagua has discarded the initial agreement.
“A good example is Ol Kalou. The issue was this, and this was the agreement, and I sat in the office when this decision was made. The united opposition had agreed that if we have a by-election in this country, the party that is holding that position, and if it is within the united opposition, that is the party that will be supported by all the parties,” he said.
He said Gachagua changed the script and demanded that the DCP party candidate should be the one to be supported because his party was the most popular one in the country at the moment.
“We did it in Mbeere, and when it came to Ol Kalou, we told DCP that we apply the same formula. DCP said they were the most popular party in the country and Jubilee must give way,” he said.
Internal cannibalism for survival
The scramble for elective posts in Mt Kenya could lead to internal cannibalism in the united opposition and create room for a major fallout within the ranks.
“I will be laying that you, DCP, are fighting not UDA but Jubilee. We have a candidate, and he is working hard,” he said.
Kioni said currently the political parties were fighting for survival in Mt Kenya and other parts of the country.
“It is no longer us just fighting UDA, but your own political survival. If that is the gear of fighting your own political survival, then how do we ensure we do not disappoint Kenyans?” he said.
He said Kenyans were not in the field of political survival but in the field of who among the presidential candidates they field against President Ruto.
“But don’t give us your worst or sacrifice the best for political expediency,” he said.
Kioni said the presidential contest should not be used to resolve personal disputes but as an avenue to give Kenya new leadership.
“On the table are issues of hate, bitterness, experience, among others. Which of these attributes do you want to present to Kenyans? Kenyans do not want to come and help one achieve his personal greed,” he said.
No boardroom decision
Kioni said Kenyans will not allow forced boardroom decisions that were not in tandem with the nomination of a presidential candidate for the united opposition.
“Don’t sit in a boardroom and think Kenyans have given you a mandate. None of the people sitting in the boardroom was elected to sit there. You went into the boardroom and locked yourself,” he said.
He said more probable presidential candidates were emerging and should be allowed space in the nomination of a joint presidential candidate.
“Do not lock others out thinking they don’t have a voice. Until the other day, ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna was not in the room, but now you cannot lock him out. There is time, and more people are coming up,” he said.
Kioni said the united opposition should copy the 2002 script and allow Kenyans to make the choice.
“The setting we saw in 2002 is what we envisage to come up with. If the decision is made by six or ten and announced by the most popular person, we are likely to have a fallout,” he said.
DCP game
After resigning from his party, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), Gachagua unveiled DCP, through which he hoped to face President Ruto.
Through the party, Gachagua first hoped to lock out Ruto from the vote-rich Mt Kenya to deny him a second term of his presidency.
“We will stop at nothing to make Kenya a better place, with good governance and leadership in place. The people of Kenya have unfinished business with you. I have a date with you in August 2027,” he said then.
Gachagua’s game was to make the party popular and the fulcrum in the country’s politics at all levels.
“We took the challenge. I made a promise to you that in May 2025, I will unveil a new political party. I have kept my word. We finally have a political party that belongs to us. We believe that every citizen must be listened to by the leaders. As the party leader, I will listen to the people; I will continue to listen to their voices. This is the biggest political movement in the country since 1963,” he said then.
The anniversary and the double-edged sword
The decision by Gachagua to skip the Gen Z anniversary presented him as a double-edged sword to the opposition in next year’s general elections.
From one perspective, Gachagua could be the engine to drive the opposition to victory against President William Ruto, while on the other, he could be the soft belly in the opposition’s failure.
Last Thursday’s Gen Z anniversary exposed Gachagua’s weakness, which may haunt the opposition in the 2027 general elections.
Gachagua’s no-show at the anniversary should be a wake-up call to Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, Siaya Governor James Orengo, former Chief Justice David Maraga, and opposition leader Martha Karua of a similar trend in the future.
The anniversary also laid down Gachagua’s script, which he may be playing close to his chest by consolidating Mt Kenya to have the majority of members of the National Assembly and Senators, and be able to negotiate with whoever becomes the President.
King of Mt Kenya
The move by Gachagua to replace DCP founding Secretary General Hezron Obaga with Nyandarua Senator John Methu and other founding officials with his close allies showed a glimpse of his game plan.
“Senator John Methu, for all practical purposes, is a member of DCP, and he will start acting from today as the Secretary General designate and be the spokesperson of the DCP party on all matters starting today,” he said then.
In Gachagua’s script for Mt Kenya is the power arrangement formula with governors elected on the DCP ticket.
Under the DCP model, governors elected on the party ticket would cede half of all appointive positions to the party, allowing Gachagua to reward loyalists and maintain grassroots control.
“Governors elected on the DCP ticket will have an agreement with us. Half of the positions will come to the party so we can take care of our people who contested but did not win,” Gachagua said.
This is a script Gachagua has borrowed from the former ODM leader, the late Raila Odinga, where his close allies were absorbed in counties in which ODM won the gubernatorial race.
The mountain continues to rumble, and Gachagua and Matiang’i will up the stakes over control. Will Uhuru’s preferred candidate, Matiang’i, prevail, or another 2022 circus?
