US Senator Chris Coons (left) meets Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in Nairobi at a past event.
The leader of the Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP), Rigathi Gachagua, is using his two-month visit to America to put pressure on President William Ruto and his Kenya Kwanza government.
Mr Gachagua, whom President Ruto forced out of office in October last year after serving as his deputy for two years, has so far highlighted 10 key issues, including government intolerance to criticism and dalliance with the leader of an armed group waging war in Sudan.
By delivering messages aimed at damaging Dr Ruto's rule on the international stage, he is attempting to establish a narrative that the world should prepare for an opposition victory in 2027.
The government has been rattled by Mr Gachagua's exploitation of America's interest in auditing the country on the grounds of its suspected links with terrorist and extremist groups.
He has also sought to align himself with the intended probe into Kenya's designation as a major non-NATO ally, which was granted in June 2024.
Senator James Risch has proposed a bill to review this status due to concerns over Kenya's growing ties with China, Russia, and Iran, human rights violations and whether Kenya has used US security assistance to commit the perceived abuses.
He further seeks clarifications on whether Kenya had ties to extremist groups, specifically Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as well as concerns that the country is serving as a financial safe haven for individuals or entities on the US Office of Foreign Assets Control's Specially Designated Nationals list.
Delegates representing political parties affiliated to Sudan's Rapid Support Forces react to greetings at KICC, Nairobi on February 18, 2025.
President Ruto has lamented that America has a problem with his administration for seeking a bilateral partnership with China.
Another fault line that Mr Gachagua has put in the international arena is that of abductions, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and persecutions of perceived government critics.
He has made it a huge agenda to paint the Dr Ruto administration as being at war with the country's citizens.
"A regime that is killing its children in the name of managing critics can only be serving other motives other than governance...I don't think there will ever be a tenet that justifies a democratically elected government to be murdering children after they get abducted," Mr Gachagua said in California.
Mogotio MP Reuben Kiborek.
But Mogotio MP Mr Reuben Kiborek said, "Mr Gachagua should be investigated since when he left the country, no abduction had taken place, leaving us wondering how, when he was around, cases kept on coming up".
He said, "some of Mr Gachagua allies are in court for suspected stage-managed abductions, and there is a likelihood he knows more than he reveals".
However, former Attorney General Justin Muturi has dismissed such talk as "escapist and aimed at trivialising a serious affront on the bill of rights.”
“I have been a firsthand witness since my son was kidnapped and ended up being released after the head of state made phone calls," he added.
Deputy President Kithure Kindiki recently led government loyalists to brand his predecessor as an unpatriotic loose cannon abroad.
Together with Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen, they have led the chorus of demanding that Mr Gachagua cease the attacks or be compelled to record a statement upon his return to the country.
Mr Mudavadi has accused Mr Gachagua of "taking his political bad manners to America as well as exporting tribalism to locals living abroad".
Enjoying the melodrama he is creating, Mr Gachagua is threatening to spill the beans in the international arena.
ODM leader Raila Odinga has also accused Mr Gachagua of "barking too much, seeking to achieve nothing", while Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetang’ula has dismissed him as "a divisive man we did well to impeach".
Mr Gachagua has also used corruption as a campaign agenda, portraying the Kenya Kwanza Alliance as greedy, wasteful and imprudent.
"I was an insider in that government, and I was privileged to attend many meetings as well as privy to inside information. You should trust me when I tell you that this government is corrupt," he told Kenyans living in Seattle.
Theft of public resources
He added that "I was an insider who was at the eating table, but I refused to agree to ripping the country apart through deals and outright theft of public resources.” “That is how I ended up being ejected".
National Assembly Leader of Majority Kimani Ichung'wa, during an interdenominational church service at Nandi Hills Stadium in Nandi County on May 11, 2025.
National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah has accused Mr Gachagua of "suddenly playing the angel even when it is clear that we impeached him for being corrupt, tribal, divisive, blackmailer and high-headed".
Mr Gachagua has further painted the government as being intolerant of divergent political standpoints.
Speaking at California State, Mr Gachagua said, "the reason why I had to be axed is because I had grown to be the only voice in the government who could question the president on governance decisions".
Mr Gachagua claimed "government taxes people so as to raise cash to support payouts for rewards for loyalists and financing 2027 reelection bid".
He added that over-taxation, state capture, wheeler-dealing and imprudent national budget enforcement have fuelled financial hardships, though diminished disposable incomes, hence creating poverty.
Mr Gachagua added that "in advancing the intolerance culture of his presidency, the opposition cause is being confronted by both armed police and goons".
Investigate violence
He said the National Police Service cannot investigate violence against the opposition figures.
Speaking in Murang'a County on August 1, 2025, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Gilbert Masengeli, said, “we serve all without favour and we hold it that everyone has freedom of expression as per the constitution".
Mr Masengeli insisted that "we only enforce the law as per the constitution, act within the law and expect all to be law-abiding regardless of the social status of anyone".
Mr Gachagua has also hyped a possible post-election crisis, trying to pin it on the government and its allies.
"We are alarmed that the President's allies are all over political space threatening to force a win even if the president is rejected by the voters," he said while at Town hall engagement at San Francisco.
“We are telling the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that if it allows itself to be used by the warmongers issuing threats on behalf of demagogues, then it will stand wholly to blame for any negative aftermath.
"We keep on telling IEBC and President Ruto that the will of the people must stand supreme...We will not entertain a situation whereby they might want it to appear as if a General Election does not count," he said.
