Democratic Citizens Party leader Rigathi Gachagua speaks during the official unveiling of the party’s elected ward representatives at the party headquarters in Nairobi on December 3, 2025.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, the self-acclaimed “truthful man”, is in the eye of a storm in the United Opposition over his comments on a supposed zoning deal with Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Patriotic Front, the November 27 by-election losses, and the 2027 plans that could determine the fate of the forces against President William Ruto’s re-election.
For Mr Gachagua, just as when he was in office, the focus is on his penchant for saying things unvarnished and revealing secrets that would rather have been discussed behind the firmly closed doors of delicate political negotiations ahead of the next elections.
Where supporters and loyalists see a man who speaks his mind, critics say the abrasive manner and divisive language that define him are a turn-off, making the former DP the Opposition’s make-or-break card.
But unmoved, Mr Gachagua teases his critics, saying that he is a politician, after all.
“I am a politician who knows politics is not a church service or a wedding, and we are all in the market to sell agendas aimed at winning power... We are allies or competitors depending on where each stands,” Mr Gachagua said recently.
Mr Gachagua and his Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) are principals in the United Opposition together with Wiper Patriotic Front’s Kalonzo Musyoka, People’s Liberation Party’s Martha Karua, Democratic Action Party-Kenya (DAP-K) led by Eugene Wamalwa and Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya, as well as Democratic Party leader Justin Muturi.
There are also Jubilee Deputy Party Leader Dr Fred Matiang’i and former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi.
United Opposition leaders (from left) Rigathi Gachagua, Kalonzo Musyoka and Eugene Wamalwa converse during the burial of JM Kariuki’s third wife, Terry Kariuki in Gilgil, Nakuru County on November 11, 2025.
Mr Gachagua, known for his outspoken defence of his Mt Kenya stronghold, has in the past months rocked the Opposition boat several times: calling Jubilee Party a red wheelbarrow (suggesting that it is UDA in disguise); announcing a controversially skewed zoning plan in Nairobi in favour of his DCP against Wiper; and comments he made after the United Opposition’s by-election loss in Mbeere North that suggested it was a DP party problem.
He has also accused some of his Opposition colleagues of being social media campaigners instead of hitting the ground, and dismissed Jubilee Party leader Uhuru Kenyatta as “the past and retired when I am the present and the future”.
“I have no comments to make, save to say that success has many owners, unlike loss. The United Opposition had joint candidates,” Mr Muturi said in a short message to Sunday Nation when asked about Mr Gachagua’s comments on the by-election. DP’s Newton Kariuki lost to Leonard wa Muthende of UDA, 15,308 to 15,802.
Mr Musyoka, caught in an awkward moment, first denied the existence of such a zoning pact in Nairobi, before later remarking, “Gachagua is (my) spokesman, and he is always truthful.”
But Wiper foot soldiers are not happy with the comments that came months after Mr Gachagua questioned the number of votes Mr Musyoka’s Ukambani bloc brought to the table, chief among them Makueni Senator Dan Maanzo.
“Such zoning utterances create disharmony in the united opposition since power belongs to the people. We cannot limit their freedom of choice,” said Mr Maanzo.
Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri, an ally of President Ruto, accuses Mr Gachagua of being blinded by “tribal politics and the obsession to amplify one region’s interests as if they live on an island.”
Kalonzo Musyoka (left) and DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua attend the Wiper Patriotic Front National Delegates Convention (NDC) at Uhuru Park in Nairobi on October 10, 2025.
“This makes us as a community to be viewed suspiciously by others. I have worked with Gachagua since 2002, and I can tell you that this man has no verbal brakes. He is the kind of man who will first say something and think later,” said Mr Kiunjuri.
He adds that, in retrospect, the ruling side is happy with Mr Gachagua’s utterances and “boat rocking” in the Opposition.
“Gachagua is effortlessly doing the work of demolishing the United Opposition for us. We wake up praying that he will make a public address and sink the Opposition deeper into negative publicity,” says Mr Kiunjuri.
But Mr Gachagua has often retorted that at 60, he cannot be taught new ways of politics.
“You cannot start teaching me how to be like you... if you were to do your own analysis of Gachagua the man – who he is, what he has and where he is headed – you can clearly see that we are all made uniquely different,” Mr Gachagua said in late November as he campaigned in Mbeere North, where the Opposition lost the MP seat to the UDA candidate from the ruling coalition.
He added: “What I am not ready to do is to bend backwards to be a sycophant, pretender or hypocrite.”
Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku recently said that while there is nothing inherently wrong with Mr Gachagua, it is “only that he has a loose mouth, is a bully, and has a condescending mentality.”
“During his tenure as the Deputy President, we tried to save him against himself – we were alarmed that his stubbornness and harsh statements were preparing him for a major disgrace. Together with Prof Kithure Kindiki we tried to sanitise his character,” Mr Ruku said this week.
Mr Gachagua agreed that there were efforts by the Prof Kindiki team, who was then Interior Cabinet Secretary, “to try and convince me to support government programmes that included abductions, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances... corruption and forceful evictions of populations from their habitations. I refused.”
Verbal attacks
Prof Kindiki, now Deputy President, has since become one of the regular victims of Mr Gachagua’s verbal attacks.
“Who elected this guy? He is not my equal. My size in politics is President Ruto... you irk me by wanting me to discuss that man,” Mr Gachagua recently said as he addressed Embu Community’s vernacular media stations.
Irked, Prof Kindiki later publicly dismissed Mr Gachagua as “Goliath, brute, a shame who I will publicly undress if you continue bad-mouthing me.”
Prof Kindiki would later have the last laugh in Mbeere North, which he cited as confirmation of Mr Gachagua’s dwindling political fortunes.
What makes Mr Gachagua more intriguing is that when he was picked as running mate in 2022 against the popular vote of allies who favoured Prof Kindiki, Dr Ruto, with all his political experience, had very kind words for the then Mathira MP. Dr Ruto described Mr Gachagua as a self-made man, a politician of repute, and a public servant whose sole goal was to help others.
“Gachagua is a very passionate leader, a people’s person. He speaks about ordinary people and is concerned about matters to do with them,” Dr Ruto said.
“What I like about him is his passion for people’s issues; he is one of those leaders who are passionate about ordinary people,” he added.
After the impeachment, the same President has dismissed Mr Gachagua as “primitive, tribal, selfish, divisive” and a politician of no promise.
But Mr Gachagua’s allies see a different man.
DCP Deputy Leader Cleophas Malala says Mr Gachagua “is a political genius who has the uncanny ability to read tides and align.”
“Gachagua is far more polished, and his messaging only rubs the wrong way those whom his expertise threatens. He speaks persuasively with clarity, rhythm, and emotional pull. He uses storytelling, slogans, and vivid imagery to define the good literature and political student that he is,” Mr Malala says of his boss.
United Opposition leaders, led by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua (center), DAP-K Party leader Eugene Wamalwa (left) and Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka (right), address the media at SKM command center in Nairobi on November 3, 2025.
The former Kakamega senator argues that Mr Gachagua’s most effective sting is that “he has a deep understanding of political psychology in which he plays around cognitive biases, the bandwagon effect, fear, reciprocity, and how to trigger desired reactions.”
Mr Natembeya seems to agree.
“Like me, Mr Gachagua is an administrator not trained to mince words – shooting straight from the hip,” said the Trans Nzoia Governor.
Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara, a fierce Gachagua ally, says Mr Gachagua’s tongue and speaking abilities are an asset in the United Opposition.
Political adaptability
“He has an amazing ability to reduce complex issues to catchy taglines or symbols; he repeats the frame consistently and induces emotional effect to move his supporters from thought to action,” Ms Kihara said.
Kipipiri MP Ms Wanjiku Muhia says Mr Gachagua has political adaptability “which enabled him to rise from impeachment ashes to the glory of being the most impactful politician in the United Opposition.”
“Gachagua is naturally blessed with boldness that enables him to quickly shift narratives when political environments change and spin setbacks into strengths... that is why he is impacting the political space in such magnitude, and has been a constant source of media headlines,” says Ms Muhia.
But Mr Gachagua’s former communications director Ngunjiri Wambugu says his acid tongue will be the Opposition team’s biggest threat.
“Gachagua goofs in his speeches because he insists on advising himself. There was a time we had actually got him to speak carefully and think through what he says and the repercussions of his words. For the better part of 2023 and most of 2024, he was not speaking recklessly or carelessly,” says Mr Ngunjiri, a former Nyeri Town MP.
Mr Ngunjiri said “this caution has gone, and he is back to his crude self.”
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