Once political soulmates bound by a shared “hustler” and “bottom up” vision, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and President William Ruto now find themselves on opposite ends of a fast-changing political battlefield.
In a dramatic twist to their fallout, Mr Gachagua on Thursday unveiled a new political party — a direct challenge to President Ruto’s leadership — as he channels the very populist “hustler” message that propelled them to an unlikely win in August 2022.
The lofty promises, idealistic pledges positioning the new party as a break with the past and a deliberate attempt to connect with the apparently neglected everyday person oppressed by a ‘dynastic’ system are all part of a familiar script that excited the country three years ago.
The former second-in-command is reinventing himself and has crafted his Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) as a fresh branding of the “hustler” narrative — this time as a weapon unleashed to make Dr Ruto a one-term President just as it was deployed in 2022 to defeat Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga , who was backed by incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and his wife Dorcas Rigathi pose for a photograph, after unveiling his new political outfit, the Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) in Lavington, Nairobi on May 15, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
After falling out with his boss and the ruling Jubilee Party, Dr Ruto, who was then the Deputy President, took the battle to Mr Kenyatta’s Mt Kenya base to market the United Democratic Alliance (UDA). Mr Gachagua, impeached in October 2024, has replicated this by setting his sights on the same region where he has vowed to end UDA dominance.
He has asserted that Central Kenya has officially cut political ties with President Ruto and will not back his 2027 re-election bid.
“We are finished with UDA. Never again will we go to an election without our own political party. Last time, we attended the wedding in the groom’s car, but when we reached the river, he asked us to step out and gave others a ride,” he said during a recent television interview.
The DCP has since emerged as a new political uprising wrapped in familiar language targeting the grassroots.
"Kenyans have boldly told us they have a solution to the problems facing them. Kenyans have asked us to start a party which will form a government by the people for the people," Mr Gachagua declared at the launch of his new political outfit on Thursday.
Like his former boss, Mr Gachagua has styled his new outfit as one that will listen to Kenyans’ pleas regardless of their status in life, akin to Dr Ruto’s 2022 “hustler narrative” that targeted the ordinary Mwananchi.
DCP, he noted, will prioritise the voices of Kenyans, underlined by slogans like "Skiza Wakenya" or “Skiza Ground” (Listen to Kenyans or listen to the people).
The ex-DP added that the party is keen on inclusivity and has on-boarded representatives from all groups across the country, including the Gen Zs, who have been politically potent since they led pro-reforms protests in June 2024.
The party's symbol is a hand cupping an ear, symbolising the act of listening to the common people, with its official colours being green, red, white and black.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and interim Deputy Party leader Cleophas Malala after unveiling their new political outfit, the Democracy for the Citizens Party in Lavington, Nairobi on May 15, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
To further endear himself to the populace, the ex-DP declared that the party would not favour any candidate.
“We have no favourites. The party belongs to all Kenyans. It is the people of Kenya who will choose the candidates they want as their leaders,” he said.
He added: “This party has no provision for direct nominations. It believes in letting the people decide. I have many leaders who have stood with me through difficult times — leaders who have walked with me on my political journey — but as much as I value them, none is entitled to direct nomination.”
Political observers see Mr Gachagua’s move as a scheme aimed at painting Dr Ruto as having neglected the very constituency that stood with him regardless of the state persecution in the run-up to the 2022 elections.
“What Gachagua is doing is politically symbolic — he’s repositioning himself as the custodian of the original hustler promise,” said political analyst Christopher Omore, an advocate.
He added: “By appealing to the very base that stood with Ruto during his hour of need, he’s subtly framing the President as a leader who rose to power on the backs of the ordinary people, only to forget them once in office.”
Mr Gachagua has also jumped into his new political vehicle with some former influential individuals in president Ruto’s UDA, including its former spokesperson and Secretary General Cleophas Malala as well as sacked Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi and former Laikipia Woman Representative Cate Waruguru whom he named as officials.
The former DP is seeking to market his outfit even as he teams up with his coalition counterparts including Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka , Peoples’ Liberation Party boss Martha Karua , DAP-Kenya’s Eugene Wamalwa, ex-Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i among other opposition leaders.
Uriri MP Mark Nyamita, however, insists that there is no formidable force in place capable of sending President Ruto home in 2027.
President William Ruto (left) with Member of Parliament for Uriri Constituency Mark Nyamita during a thanksgiving ceremony for the MP in Uriri, Migori on March 25, 2023.
Photo credit: Ondari Ogega | Nation Media Group
“The people claiming that President Ruto is a one-term president are misguided because there’s no formidable force to remove him,” Mr Nyamita, an ODM MP, said.
But Mr Malala, the DCP interim deputy party leader thinks the latest move is a masterstroke.
"It is long since we had a party with a strong rallying call; a message that resonates with the masses. Our slogan is ‘Skiza Ground’. Our party leader has been categorical about the importance of listening to Kenyans. I was removed from office (as UDA Secretary General) because I tried to advise my former Party leader to listen to the people," he said, adding that in DCP, such victimisation will be a thing of the past.
Nyandarua Senator John Methu, who was elected on a UDA ticket but is in Mr Gachagua’s camp, said the party would listen to Kenyans of all walks of life and fight for their rights.
“The voices of ordinary Kenyans who are oppressed, overtaxed, unemployed, unheard, and struggling to survive matters. Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) is the way to go,” he said.
DCP, proponents maintained, was unveiled under the banner of “true bottom-up leadership,” echoing the same language and strategy Dr Ruto used to ascend to power in 2022.
Mr Gachagua’s move is thus not just a political rebellion, but a calculated grassroots offensive.
He has embarked on rallying local leaders, especially in the Mt Kenya region, calling for a return to ‘authentic’ bottom-up economics and accusing the president of abandoning the very hustlers who put Kenya Kwanza in office.
His strategy mirrors Ruto’s 2022 playbook: intimate barazas, community “listening” tours and hard-hitting attacks on supposed state aloofness.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua (in red suit) with other officials during the unveiling ceremony of Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) in Lavington, Nairobi on May 15, 2025.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
This realignment, which comes almost nine months after Mr Gachagua’s impeachment, sends shockwaves through the ruling coalition, effectively splitting the once-united Kenya Kwanza Alliance.
For now, President Ruto has remained largely silent on the latest move, but State House allies have dismissed the new party as a “reactionary move driven by personal ambition.”
Mr Gachagua had been labelled a “tribalist,” over his “government of shareholders” narrative.
"This government is a company that has shares. There are owners who have the majority of shares, and those with just a few, while others do not have any. You invested in this government and you must reap. You sowed, tilled, put manure and irrigated, and now it is time to reap," Mr Gachagua said during a rally in Kericho on February 19, 2023.
The statement, repeated in various versions, drew widespread criticism and further isolated Mr Gachagua politically. It is a label he has been working to shed.
Some observers say his fall from grace last year, and the subsequent move to rise politically following, still complicates his efforts to present himself as a principled opponent of the Ruto administration. As the 2027 polls inch closer, Kenya appears headed for a high-stakes political duel between two former allies turned rivals.
Hustler 2.0, it seems, is Gachagua’s attempt to beat Ruto at his own game. Whether or not it succeeds will depend on how deeply the people still believe in the promises first made — and now seemingly broken.
Political analyst Prof Gitile Naituli of the Multi Media University of Kenya insists there is need to restore sovereignty and rebuild a nation based on values.
“When leaders govern aligned with truth, nations thrive,” he says. But when there is no integrity, things fall apart “no matter how elaborate the constitutions or how sophisticated the systems”.
“In Kenya today, we are paying the price for forgetting this. We have treated power as a trophy to be seized, not a trust to be stewarded. We have allowed governance to be reduced to tribal arithmetic and legal trickery. We have permitted elections to become managed spectacles instead of living expressions of the people's sovereign will,” Prof Naituli said.
No administration, no law, no propaganda, he says, can erase the sovereign power that resides permanently in the people.
“Sovereignty is not given by governments. It is breathed into every citizen at birth. The urgent task before Kenya is not merely political reform. It is spiritual and civic remembrance. We must rebuild governance, law, education, and public life upon the real foundations of truth over manipulation, stewardship over exploitation, unity over division and natural law over systemic distortion.”
Notable politicians have been given roles in Mr Gachagua’s new outfit. They include Mithika Linturi (interim National Organizing Secretary), Cate Waruguru (National Women's Leader) and former Limuru MP Peter Mwathi (interim Deputy Party chair of strategy).
Others are veteran politician Maina Kamanda (Chairperson of the Council of Eminent Persons) and ex-Kasarani MP Mercy Gakuya (Secretary for Education).
