UDA party interim Secretary General Hassan Omar (left) and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
President William Ruto's ruling UDA party interim Secretary General Hassan Omar has now warned Deputy Rigathi Gachagua's allies to drop the idea of a co-presidency, following complaints that some meetings with Mt Kenya leaders were being held by State House in the absence of the second in command.
In response to public complaints by key allies of Mr Gachagua, Mr Omar said the president will continue meeting with those who want his audience regardless of the reaction generated.
"There is no co-presidency to occasion an entitlement on the part of any leader and neither is there a gatekeeper for any region or for any set of MPs," Mr Omar said.
However, Mr Omar did not clarify whether his statement was his personal opinion or the thinking of the ruling party that has the president as its national leader and Mr Gachagua as the deputy party leader.
This was also against a backdrop of Mr Gachagua allies who have been complaining that the president has been meeting some Mt Kenya leaders in the absence of Mr Gachagua.
They have also been claiming that President Ruto should be holding inclusive meetings with all Mt Kenya leaders as opposed to occasions when he meets only those allied to him.
Mr Omar now wants Mr Gachagua’s allies to internalise the position that the Deputy President is not the de facto common denominator in deciding who the Head of State trusts or distrusts in his day to day engagements with Mt Kenya stakeholders.
This was after Mr Gachagua's recent ultimatum against President Ruto's Mt Kenya allies to toe the 'villager' line or risk 2027 annihilation.
The declaration has ignited an underground fire in the restive region, fuelling the tensions that have been at play between Dr Ruto and Mr Gachagua loyalists.
On August 17 during the wedding of Juja MP George Koimburi's daughter in Kiambu County, Mr Gachagua told those who defy his Mt Kenya unity push are likely to suffer defeat in the next election. .
"As we head for the 2027 elections, take note that it will be very competitive. You know I am that person who listens to the ground. Some serious decisions have already been made," Gachagua said.
A region that has been sulking ever since President Ruto incorporated opposition Chief Raila Odinga's men into new so called broad based government, battle lines now appear cleanly defined, Mr Gachagua's ominous warning spreading political tensions.
Already the broad-based Cabinet has elicited negative passions from Mr Gachagua allies, even as president Ruto loyalists continue to rally the region behind it.
"We are now wondering what was the importance of taking people to a costly General Election. If elections are not about defining winners to form government and losers to form opposition, then we can as well be congregating village elders to chose for us a president," said Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara.
Ms Kihara, a staunch Gachagua ally, lamented on her August 12, 2024 Inooro TV live address that "the political developments as they have been unfolding reek of betrayal, deceit and conmanship to a point that it is no longer definable what Mt Kenya region trusted in 2022".
Ms Kihara said the prologue towards formation of broad-based cabinet was President Ruto convening meetings that isolated Mr Gachagua to discuss matters of the mountain.
Political analyst Gasper Odhiambo told Nation Africa that "what is ailing Mt Kenya is lack of a unanimously accepted decisive leader who can lead area voters to actual frontline terraces ahead of 2027 battle."
He termed Mr Gachagua as a man who “has no choice but to learn to live with the persecutions he consistently loves to reveal" since he “fears the President”.
Mr Gachagua has on several occasions publicly claimed that close allies of the president are behind a scheme to divide Mt Kenya and also persecute him but has always maintained he remained loyal to Dr Ruto. This lack of a decisive move could either be a self-preservation strategy to avoid severing ties with his boss too early or an indication that he feared being consigned to the political wilderness.
Mr Odhiambo added that Mr Gachagua despite the obvious reality that his popularity in the region has soared, he nevertheless only talks of Mt Kenya unity ahead of 2027 without coming out cleanly on where he seeks to take that united vote basket that loves him.
"He speaks as if he doubts president Ruto's popularity in Mt Kenya but is unsure on where a united Mt Kenya should be in 2027. He should come out clean and tell the world where he wants Mt Kenya to be where in 2027."
Maragua MP Mary wa Maua, who is also Mr Gachagua’s ally, told Nation.Africa on phone that "we are at a point where supporting our Deputy President is patriotism to our region and the country at large".
She added: "We are now being recruited into a political backbiting scheme where we are summoned to State House at short notice, given agenda that are like an ambush and whipped to positions that only fuel discord in our region".
Ms Wamaua said leaders were recently called to a state House “where our phones were confiscated at the gates”but in the end the agenda was to lobby them to support the broad-based government.
Other Gachagua loyalists, who spoke in confidence to Nation Africa for fear of political backlash, said sometimes they are urged by State House aides not to attend Mr Gachagua’s functions.
But Mr Omar, the interim UDA Secretary General, told off the legislators complaining about the meetings.
"What MPs say or not say has never been an issue in our political axis. It is not President Ruto’s political style to gag members or stifle free speech... That is why MPs speak and express their views and opinions freely, including those who claim to be allied to Mr Gachagua," he told Nation.Africa.
Mr Omar said the president will continue meeting with those who want his audience regardless of the emotions the move is eliciting.
"Save for PGs (Parliamentary Group meetings), the other meetings are sought by various MPs or groups of legislators, most often over development issues in their constituencies. In any case, what's wrong with MPs meeting their party leader who also is the President?" he said.
Mr Omar said there was nothing wrong with holding such meetings even in the absence of Mr Gachagua.
"It is not the President isolating anybody from meetings. The convenors of the meetings are very clear who they want in their meetings and who they don't want. It's the discretion of the convenor. In any case, no one is prevented from meeting MPs anywhere," he said.
Mr Gachagua's political aide, Mr Wambugu Ngunjiri did not comment on the matter when Nation.Africa brought Omar's statement to his attention.
Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga on Friday decried emergence of arrogance and condescending attitude in the way president Ruto’s allies are playing politics.
"All we want is mutual respect to prevail. We do not desire these barbs that are being thrown around the Mountain," he said.
He added that "there is deceptive politics being played that even make us suspect there are external powerful hands at the ‘centre’ that are behind distabilising Mt Kenya region”.
Mr Kahiga has since warned that the region “is not short of options”.
On Saturday, outspoken Githunguri MP Gathoni wa Muchomba said trouble is growing in the region for those opposed to Mr Gachagua.
"Those who care to help this government get the right pulse should be telling it that Gachagua is the man of the moment in this region and all those who seek to engage us must pass through him. Any other choice will be resisted," she said.
Laikipia MP Mr Mwangi Kiunjuri countered that "all what Mr Gachagua is doing is to create passions for tribe and which will lead to the Mt Kenya region becoming a political island".
He said anyone pretending to lead Mt Kenya must preach unity that seeks to amalgamate the region with other regions and tribes under the Kenyan flag.
"We are being told to unite under a self-made deity...we cannot unite to idol worship a human being. We will unite to demand our own political vehicle, identity and purpose...but not to be withdrawn to an isolation camp so that one individual can use us to survive his fallacies," he said.
But Kikuyu Council of elders Chairman Mr Wachira Kiago on Saturday warned Mt Kenya leaders against politicking instead of ensuring the well-being of the people.
"We are waiting for improved earnings in the agricultural sector, Industrialisation to create jobs, resources allocation per our numbers, preservation of our culture for posterity; such things," he told Nation Africa.
Mr Kiago said the collective enemies of the common Mt Kenya people are all those leaders creating walls of division across political formations.
"We should be hearing about joint meetings of unity to help us overcome development challenges, erect useful bridges for cooperation ahead and discarding those alliances that do not represent what we stand for as a community,” he said, warning against plots to isolate some leaders.
