The battle for supremacy between Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri has reached a fever pitch and the two are now working hard to take each other down politically.
The two have recently been at loggerheads over something that no political pundit in the region can put a finger on, and they have emerged as two men fighting a personal battle.
However, it is not lost on political analysts that Mr Kiunjuri was once a friend and founding member of the Grand National Union (GNU) with Mr Gachagua's elder brother, the late Nderitu Gachagua, the first governor of Nyeri.
While Mr Gachagua belongs to the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party, Mr Kiunjuri has his The Service Party (TSP), but while Mr Gachagua is not a principal in the ruling Kenya Kwanza Alliance, Mr Kiunjuri is.
"Their fight must be either about personal differences sparked years back, or, it is about the Mt Kenya region kingpin issue. Both are qualified candidates for the region's greatness in the future," said Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) don Charles Mwangi.
In their latest war of words, Mr Kiunjuri accuses Mr Gachagua of being a suspect in the violent Gen Z protests, accusing him of being part of a network that funded 25,000 hooligans to cause mayhem.
He also accuses Mr Gachagua of blackmailing the President with attempts to overthrow him and playing the tribal card with the intention of withdrawing Mt Kenya's support from the President in 2027.
Mr Kiunjuri has also accused Mr Gachagua of being responsible for the inclusion of opposition leader Raila Odinga's loyalists in the government.
While Mr Gachagua, through himself and allies, has also publicly claimed that he is being persecuted, undermined and sabotaged by people close to the President, Mr Kiunjuri has countered that "most of his problems are of his own making".
Mr Kiunjuri - who said a united Mountain must start with mutual respect by all among all in the region - has also reacted to Gachagua's visit to Kirinyaga County on May 19, 2024, where his entourage castigated him alongside Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro as one of those who divide the region politically.
The more than 20 elected leaders who accompanied Gachagua to the county to bury his high school teacher, Mr Kano Ndumbi, vowed to crush all those who "undermine Gachagua as the undisputed kingpin".
Mr Gachagua described his opponents in the mountain as collaborators, traitors and leg-beaters for the enemies of the people of Mt Kenya, prompting Mr Kiunjuri to come out with guns blazing in a fight with no rules.
Mr Kiunjuri responded that Mr Gachagua has a demeaning attitude that demands everyone to submit to him like school children.
Before Mr Gachagua's attack on Mr Kiunjuri, the Laikipia East MP was quoted in Nanyuki town as telling the deputy president to "get out of the KKA government if he is unhappy".
He said he had evidence of how the DP had threatened and humiliated no fewer than 38 elected leaders in the region... chasing some out of positions and planting opposition against others to force them to submit to him.
After President William Ruto dissolved his cabinet and later reconstituted it, giving Mr Odinga six key positions, Mr Kiunjuri accused Mr Gachagua of being the common denominator in the president's decision.
"Our interests in this government are in the hands of someone who cries for more even when his mouth is full of food, thus portraying us as a greedy bunch who are hard to please," he said, dismissing the DP as selfish.
Mr Kiunjuri said, "Mt Kenya stands to blame itself through Mr Gachagua for not humbling itself inside a government where we had the majority stake".
He said Mt Kenya through a plot hatched by four politicians in partnership with two others from Azimio financed 25,000 hooligans to infiltrate Gen Zs peaceful anti-Finance Bill protests in a bid to topple President Ruto from power.
"The President has revealed to some of us... there is damning evidence and some have already recorded police statements. We know who is who in this plot, we have audio and visual evidence and money trails," he said.
Mr Kiunjuri said: "One of our senior leaders from Mt Kenya region financed some of the thugs and for example in Juja constituency alone, they took 3,000 people to the protests that ended up with the storming and burning of part of the National Assembly."
Mr Gachagua had on June 26, 2024, lamented that there was a high-profile plot being hatched to associate him, a few leaders in Mt Kenya and a former president to the protests.
Mr Gachagua later dismissed Mr Kiunjuri's comments as part of "idiotic minds using the unfortunate protests to settle scores against those they don't support or like".
Last Sunday, August 4, Mr Gachagua was back on TV accusing Mr Kiunjuri of being guided by the "strength of speaking in useless parables and outdated sayings and should be ignored".
"His only problem is that he is hungry and needs to be silenced by putting something in his mouth. He is just a Kunda Ngutume (take a sip I send you)...he shamed Mt Kenya by saying we supported violence by sponsoring 25,000 hooligans," Mr Gachagua said.
The DP added that Mr Kiunjuri "needs to tell us how he counted them...how he determined tribe of the said hooligans, how they were transported and by what means and number plates [of the vehicles] involved".
The DP wondered why Mr Kiunjuri had not yet made a statement about the vast knowledge he had declared about this crime of treason.
"He is an enemy of the mountain. His hunger is on another level if he can go begging for food by shaming his own community. He should examine his hunger and choose wisely those who feed him. I have asked the DCI director to help us get evidence from Kiunjuri," Gachagua said.
Former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
On Thursday, August 8, Mr Kiunjuri called Nation.Africa and said he wanted to respond to Mr Gachagua's sentiments.
"I stand by my statement about Gachagua and I will respond to him appropriately at the appropriate time...maybe next week. He should not panic because if he is indeed innocent, he should not fear my spoken word," he said.
Mr Kiunjuri added that he was ready to demonstrate in practice how it is possible to ferry 25,000 hooligans to cause mayhem in Nairobi, "which indeed happened and there is evidence".
Mr Kiunjuri urged the investigators in the case to expedite the filing of charges against the perpetrators "and without fear or favour charge all of them irrespective of the office they hold".
Mr Kiunjuri said, "I will also demonstrate who between me and him is greedy and needs to be silenced with food," setting up a case of Mr Gachagua versus Kiunjuri: Who will blink first?
