The ouster of Mr Rigathi Gachagua as Deputy President is set to trigger a supremacy battle in Mount Kenya as leaders jostle to position themselves in the region ahead of the 2027 elections.
For two years, Mr Gachagua was viewed as holding the mantle for the region’s leadership by virtue of being its senior-most elected leader. It’s a position he had sought to wrestle from former President Uhuru Kenyatta , but his recent tribulations will test his influence and endurance without the trappings of power.
Mr Gachagua has vowed to fight in court to overturn his impeachment, which threatens his political career as he is barred from holding public office, a devastating blow that rules him out of vying for election.
The elevation of Prof Kithure Kindiki as the Deputy President has added a fresh twist to this supremacy battle, especially given the choreographed endorsement he had received from the region’s MPs mostly allied to Dr Ruto weeks to the impeachment of Mr Gachagua.
Signalling that he cannot be ruled out yet, Mr Gachagua on Saturday said in Kirinyaga, a day after Prof Kindiki was sworn in, that he will soon give the region the political direction to take, a pointer he will not relent in his pursuit of power.
But without high office, and attendant state machinery, it is expected that some of his fierce critics in the region who had challenged him even while in office, including National Assembly Leader of Majority Kimani Ichung’wah who led the campaign to topple him and has been closer to Dr Ruto, will become bolder.
Besides Prof Kindiki, who will seek to carve out his power base, the likes of governors Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga) and Irungu Kang’ata (Murang’a), who had campaigned to be named deputy president; Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri, who has consistently fought Mr Gachagua; former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga, who had accused the former deputy president of orchestrating a crackdown on youth under the guise of crushing re-emergence of the outlawed group; are waiting in the wings.
The only disadvantage of the leaders who openly backed Mr Gachagua’s impeachment is the hostility the action has brewed in the region to the point that some of them have kept away from their constituencies to avoid the wrath of constituents.
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, who was initially touted as Mr Gachagua’s replacement in the early days of Dr Ruto’s administration but has since gone quiet and avoided Mr Gachagua’s impeachment drama, is among other leaders being watched closely.
The region’s political wing allied to Mr Kenyatta, which largely incorporates Jubilee Party leaders, including Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni, will also add a new dimension to the supremacy battle. Then there is Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua, who is one of the fiercest critics of Dr Ruto’s government and has faulted Opposition chief Raila Odinga, with whom she ran on a joint ticket for the presidency in 2022, for supporting the Kenya Kwanza administration and securing Cabinet slots for his allies.
Ms Karua, Mr Kioni and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka are the leaders of the opposition Azimio coalition party that refused to endorse Mr Odinga’s move to collaborate with President Ruto with Ms Karua even beginning the process to exit her Narc-Kenya from the opposition outfit.
Mr Njenga, at a public event in Ndumberi, Kiambu, to celebrate the birthday of Mr Kenyatta, which was attended by Mr Kalonzo, announced the formation of a movement that he claimed would sweep across Mount Kenya region.
“The Mountain is united and it has not been touched. We will form a movement that will guide Mount Kenya region,” Mr Njenga said.
Mr Bob Mkangi, a former member of the Committee of Experts (CoE), says that Mr Gachagua has a chance if he clears his impeachment in court.
“Mr Gachagua will have to clear his name first to safeguard his political relevance. Until that happens, it’s difficult to talk about his Kingship in Mount Kenya politics,” says Mr Mkangi.
Article 75 of the constitution states that one cannot hold any public office if impeached, which means the DP has to clear his name in court to remain relevant politically.
Prof Kindiki comes from the Eastern side of the Mount Kenya region, which has generally less population compared to the western side of the mountain, the central Kenya region.
“To stake his leadership claim on the Mountain, Prof Kindiki will be required to work extra hard to convince people from central Kenya considering that they are the majority in the region compared to his ethnic community,” says Mr Herman Manyora, the University of Nairobi lecturer and political analyst.
According to the former Mungiki leader, Prof Kindiki has to unite the region now “as it had been started by Mr Gachagua.”
“We are ready to help or assist him where he feels like,” says Mr Njenga adding; “Kindiki is going to take us to the Promised Land because he is the leader now.”
But not everyone is convinced that Mr Njenga holds any sway in the region’s politics, especially given his links to the outlawed group that waged a bloody revolt that brewed resentment in the region and whose horror campaign was only brutally crushed by the government.
That he has lost in past elections despite his self-acclaimed grassroots mobilization has been cited as a pointer that he is a paper tiger and one who only thrives in chaos.
“Maina Njenga is much ado about nothing in Mount Kenya politics. He only becomes relevant when the region is under grave threat. The Gachagua debacle has, no doubt, shaken regional politics, but calm will settle in fast, making Maina and Mungiki a non-issue,” says Prof Peter Kagwanja, a political scientist.
“There's no re-emergence here. I have always maintained a stand and stood for the rights of people especially the youths’ health, and education. I am not calling myself Ndovu but the youths see a big thing coming in me,” claims Mr Njenga.
On November 1, Mr Njenga warned that those who dismissed him would be in for a “rude shock.” “We are here speaking to the people. Those who have been using their positions of influence to blackmail and lie to them have nowhere to hide,” said Mr Njenga. “There are some people who used to take us to court but they are now the ones in court fighting their wars,” says Mr Njenga in a veiled attack on Mr Gachagua.
Mr Amos Nyasani, a political scientist, notes that Mr Kiunjuri, even without a ministerial flag, is at the peak of his political journey.
“Seizing this moment, Mr Kiunjuri is casting himself as a man of the people and an alternative voice,” says Mr Nyasani.
However, Mr Njeru Kathangu, the former Runyenjes MP says that the Mount Kenya region like most other regions in the country suffers from “leadership-integrity deficiency” and therefore democratic values are almost non-existent.
“In this situation, leaders who can work for people's aspirations are difficult to identify and therefore, the ground is for all and sundry,” says Mr Kathangu.
The former Runyenjes MP adds that the likes of Mr Njenga are only capitalizing on the prevailing political environment to throw a 'spanner in the works'.
This, ‘Mtumishi’ says, is not for change of any direction and that “the region has no leader currently to take it forward.”
Former Kiambu Town MP Jude Njomo says the time has come to bring everyone on board and forget about the past.
“We are committed to living harmoniously. Maina represents a constituency that has been forgotten,” says Mr Njomo.
Mount Kenya region has long been at the centre of Kenya’s broader struggle with class, power, and representation.
Over the years, the region’s elites have maintained control, consolidating wealth and influence through strategic alliances and established networks.
Mr Gachagua’s impeachment and subsequent removal from office have revealed cracks within Mount Kenya’s established order, creating a power vacuum that many are scrambling to fill.
Mathioya MP Edwin Mugo says that the removal of Mr Gachagua presents a “great” alternative to the Mountain citing his “high handedness” in his style of leadership.
But even as the dark clouds seem to have fallen on Mr Gachagua, former Laikipia Woman Representative Catherine Waruguru argued that Mr Gachagua remains Mount Kenya’s undisputed leader.
“It’s a fact that an impeachment motion against Mr Gachagua was sanctioned by President Ruto. But we remain behind Mr Gachagua to show us the way. The only question we are asking is, what did Mr Gachagua do to deserve this? Is it because he keeps asking Ruto to keep his word to Kenyans and listen to the ground?” Ms Waruguru posed.
But Dr Mugo cites Mr Gachagua’s undoing and his inability to quell the flaring high-octane politics before they ran out of hand and his failure to own a political party as his biggest impediments.
Unlike President William Ruto when in 2013 he became Deputy President with a political party – the United Republican Party, Mr Gachagua does not own any political party, meaning he has no command or influence in parliament.
