Eight political battles threatening Mt Kenya unity ahead of 2027

In the Mountain’s current political environment, the parties that are locked in cutthroat competition are the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) headed by President William Ruto, the Jubilee Party headed of former President Uhuru Kenyatta as well as the Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) led by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

While Mr Kenyatta and Mr Gachagua belong to the United Opposition alliance, which seeks to defeat President Ruto in the 2027 General Election, they still remain at variance. Mr Gachagua has declared interest in vying for the presidency while Mr Kenyatta is fronting former Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i, hence creating two centres of command.

But the devil is in the details, where the conflict between the three key players in Mt Kenya politics is fracturing the problem to give rise to mini battles within the main one, in the process risking the Mountain degenerating into a full-blown political warzone full of friendly-fire casualties.

Kindiki vs Gachagua

After Mr Gachagua was impeached as Deputy President in October 2024, President Ruto appointed Prof Kithure Kindiki to the position. Though the two continue to battle in court regarding whether the impeachment and the replacement met the legal threshold, their battle is more severe on the ground.

Mr Gachagua has sworn, through his DCP, to ensure Mt Kenya transfers its 87 per cent—or more—loyalty that area voters bestowed on President Ruto in 2022 to the United Opposition.

In turn, Prof Kindiki, in full realisation that his running mate slot remains expressly dependent on his ability to stop the Gachagua scheme, is hitting back, mobilising the ground to remain loyal to President Ruto.

Prof Kindiki is too well aware that should there arise evidence that he cannot stop Gachagua and Mr Kenyatta on their opposition tracks, his politics as second-in-command will expire in 2027, his Plan B of salvaging his ambitions remaining very grim.

Jubilee vs DCP

Even when the two parties appear to be fighting from the same terraces, their supremacy battle remains savage in the shadows, sometimes exploding into the public domain.

So toxic is the relationship between the two parties in Mt Kenya to the point that some DCP hardliners are already advocating for the total side-lining of Dr Matiang’i in the Mt Kenya domain of the United Opposition.

The DCP’s Chair of Eminent Persons, Mr Maina Kamanda, wants Dr Matiang’i to vacate efforts of seeking support in Mt Kenya and instead take the Jubilee Party to Kisii-land, to try to consolidate votes in the Nyanza region for the ultimate bargaining drive in lobbying for the presidential ticket.

“There is no way we will agree to efforts by Dr Matiang’i and the Jubilee Party to mobilise Mt Kenya support. Mt Kenya belongs to DCP and Mr Gachagua. Not even Mr Kenyatta can mobilise Mt Kenya as a regional voting bloc. We want Mr Kenyatta managing us nationally, not in our villages,” Mr Kamanda said.

However, Jubilee Deputy Secretary-General Mr Zack Kinuthia told the Nation that “the United Opposition needs Dr Matiang’i more than he needs it… since out of every 10 people loyal to the opposition in Mt Kenya, eight are for him”.

Jubilee, in utterances and deeds, appears to be putting across the message that it must be Dr Matiang’i as the flag bearer or there is no deal.

A Jubilee aspirants’ caucus led by former Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu also accuses Mr Gachagua and DCP of political cannibalism, saying “he is poaching our aspirants”.

But Mr Gachagua told the Nation that “all should work hard for their parties in recruiting their own loyal bases and aspirants since I’m not prepared to be anyone’s worker… I have my DCP to build and aspirants to recruit and sell”.

UDA vs DCP

Beyond the Gachagua–Kindiki beef is DCP’s onslaught against UDA elected leaders who voted to impeach the former Deputy President.

This has largely come out as Mr Gachagua’s revenge mission, where he seeks to eclipse the 2022 ‘yellow fever’ in the Mountain with his new green outfit.

This has seen UDA chairperson Ms Cecily Mbarire, who is the Embu governor, warn that the President’s party will use a development rate card to beat rhetoric and the bogeyman politics advanced by Mr Gachagua.

Mr Gachagua insists that “there is no UDA left in Mt Kenya and it is a matter of time before evidence comes out in 2027”.

UDA vs Jubilee

UDA in Mt Kenya has not managed to hide the fact that it either fears Mr Kenyatta’s and Dr Matiang’i’s potential ahead of 2027.

Cabinet Secretaries like Ms Alice Wahome and Mr William Kabogo have been vocal in dismissing Mr Kenyatta as meddlesome and as someone who has refused to retire from active electoral politics.

National Assembly Majority Leader Mr Kimani Ichung’wa accuses Mr Kenyatta of being a condescending and selfish leader who cannot let go of the reins of power to a new crop of leaders.

But Mr Gachagua defends Mr Kenyatta as “our Mountain King whose respect should be unconditional as he enjoys his retirement while offering logistical and technical support to me in managing our 2027 destiny”.

Mt Kenya East vs Mt Kenya West

According to Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku, Tharaka Nithi, Meru and Embu counties must detach themselves from the rest of Mt Kenya and approach 2027 as an independent entity controlling over a million votes.

He said Mt Kenya East is not ready to receive its marching orders from anyone else apart from President Ruto and his deputy, Prof Kindiki.

This has seen Prof Kindiki make several grassroots mobilisation programmes in the region, with Mr Gachagua hitting back through high-voltage political rallies.

Prof Kindiki has managed to stage his political muscle through three by-elections (Mbeere North constituency as well as Evurore and Muminji wards), where he won in all.

Those wins are being used as evidence by Prof Kindiki’s team that splitting the Mountain is very possible and it will be done if survival mathematics so demands.

But Mr Gachagua warns that “dividing the Mountain will be fought with all it takes and I am ready to match a rally for a rally, word for word, effort for effort and even a shilling for a shilling to defeat the scheme”.

Diaspora vs Mt Kenya voters

Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika has complained that Mr Gachagua and his loyalists use ethnic profiling politics in total ignorance that there are Mountaineers who live and work in cosmopolitan regions.

She lamented that “Mr Gachagua spews nothing but toxic words that are a threat to national security and more so to the very Mountain people he seeks to lead”.

Lamu Woman Representative Ms Muthoni Marubu, who has roots in Mt Kenya but represents a Coast county, accused Mr Gachagua of not appreciating the fact that “those of us in cosmopolitan electoral units require the goodwill of our neighbours to feel safe”.

Laikipia East MP Mr Mwangi Kiunjuri said “we cannot afford to present ourselves as the cream of the country where we look down on other tribes in the false belief that Mr Gachagua promotes, that we are a pedigree while others are lesser breeds”.

But Naivasha MP Jane Kihara told the Nation that “it is the government-allied loyalists who have been going around the country spreading fear that boycotting the government in 2027 will come with consequences”.

Ms Kihara said “peace for our people is not negotiable and all who feel otherwise should feel free to invite the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a second time if they have forgotten about Season One after the 2007 General Election”.

Fence-Sitters vs Loyalists

There are a number elected leaders who are still playing it safe by not aligning with any of the raging waves in Mt Kenya.

One of the key leaders is Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, who despite being randomly vocal against the government’s fiscal policies, remains safely perched on the fence. He has not declared whether he opposes or supports President Ruto’s re-election.

Even when his peers like Mr Edwin Sifuna and Mr Babu Owino have come out in support of Ruto’s defeat in 2027, Mr Nyoro has been largely critical of the President but largely non-committal on whether to brandish the two-finger salute in the “Tutam” slogan, or one of it to signify “Wantam.”

“There is still time to align. All these formations you see around will not reach 2027 as they are. They will shift and the end of 2026 is the best moment to start making informed decisions,” Mr Nyoro recently told Inooro TV in an interview in Murang’a.

He represents the dilemma of many others who are said to be weighing their options on the fence to decide which side to jump to latest by the close of February 2027.

The People vs Leaders

Scenes of leaders fleeing from the danger of physical harm, and others from booing by angry Mt Kenya residents, have been occurring with alarming frequency.

Lamu Woman Representative Ms Muthoni Marubu, who a few weeks ago had to be rescued from irate members of the public after she declared loyalty to President Ruto, said “those are the effects of archaic politics being played by Mr Gachagua in Mt Kenya”.

But Kirinyaga Woman Representative Njeri Maina told the Nation that “you cannot lack the emotional intelligence of first reading the mood of the audience and then, after you get into trouble, blame your opponents”.

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