Why Rigathi Gachagua’s ‘village’ political script could affect his dream of national leadership

With a huge basket of votes in Mount Kenya and a national office to exercise his politics, being second in command meant that Gachagua was one step away from ultimate power.

“But from the beginning, and this is a key reason why I have not considered him worthy of friendship, he started talking about shareholder government and things like that… That regionalism has been his weakest point,” says Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna.

Mr Sifuna said that “until then Mr Gachagua will embrace national values ​​and objectives… that will be the turning point in his policy.”

Dr Ruto chose Mr Gachagua as his running mate for the August 2022 general elections even before he completed his first term as MP for Mathira.

“In my long administrative career, where I served in all pre-independence Kenyan governments until 2020, I did not expect Gachagua to rise so abruptly. I am giving him the job, it was a smart move on his part,” said former Nairobi administrator Joseph Kaguthi.

Mr Kaguthi said Nation.Africa “Gachagua came to power on the hopes of Mount Kenya and when he was tasked with overseeing the rejuvenation of the coffee, tea and dairy sectors, the optimism for economic freedom dawning on the mountain became a reality.”

In the recent developments, which culminated in the dissolution of President Ruto’s inaugural cabinet, Gachagua was also reported to have had a heart-to-heart with his boss, where he expressed disappointment over his public expression of developments within the Kwanzaa administration in Kenya.

“The boss told the DP that he had stabbed him in the back. He said that when he needed him, he was busy exposing the ills of the leaders instead of finding a way to discuss the problems,” revealed a senior Kwanza Kenya official within the presidency who was privy to the meeting the president held with the DP at the last Cabinet meeting, now dubbed ‘the last super’.

The President’s concerns also touched on the DP’s decision to capitalise on the “village” slogan after National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah referred to its actions to consolidate the Mountain and push for one man, one shilling, one vote.

Mr Kung’u Muigai, patron of the Kikuyu Council of Elders, says “Gachagua’s glorious moment of securing the vice presidency was largely based on his commitment to protect the 1967 oath administered to the community by the nation’s founding father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, never to enter into political alliances with certain formations.”

He says that the transition from a regional hope to a national favorite is the vertex that is yet to be realized for Gachagua.

Mr Muigai said “Mr Gachagua’s decision to safeguard the wish of the late Kenyatta which was being betrayed by his own son (Mr Uhuru Kenyatta) by trying to get the region to back Mr Raila Odinga has served to endear him to his people, leading to Dr William Ruto reaping huge benefits from the region in the August 9, 2022 poll.” Mr Muigai said Mr Gachagua’s opposition to a handshake between President Ruto and Mr Odinga had kept him in good stead on the Mountain, until the national angle of his swearing-in came to light.

Mr. Kaguthi fears that Mr. Gachagua has conveyed too much love for the mountain and too much enthusiasm for serving it to the point of forgetting or neglecting his broader national calling.

As the President’s chief aide and symbol of national unity, it was only a matter of time before DP Gachagua’s approach to regional politics clashed with his boss’s projections, leading to the current crisis where it is clear that they have drifted apart.

Political analyst Prof Ngugi Njoroge describes Gachagua’s evolution from first-term MP to vice president as a cross whose weight worried the former junior district officer in the Kanu regime.

“From a darling of the mountain, he was transformed into a national punching bag for too much regionalism and conflict-laden proclamations before taking a new turn that seems aimed at becoming king of Mount Kenya at the expense of his constitutionally defined national mandate,” he said.

Professor Charles Mwangi of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricultural Technology said: “It is now clear that given two options between leading Kenya or the mountain, Gachagua will probably choose the mountain.”

This is a notion that Mr. Gachagua has had of late and has been trying to combat, while in Murang’a County on June 29, 2024, saying “my main interest as a Mountain villager is to unite my own people so that we can move together towards the national platform to unite Kenyans.”

He said, “Everyone has their own origins. For example, I come from the mountains and we cannot speak of a nation before having exhausted the debate about our families, towns, counties… until we unite the nation.”

Former Gatanga MP Nduati Ngugi said: “Mr Gachagua’s ‘I am a villager’ moniker being promoted on the mountain has also lit a fire of pride among Mount Kenya natives but has created a wedge with the president’s allies in the same region.” Mr Ngugi believes the villager moniker, if handled well, could give Gachagua the advantage of another wave of political clarion call, more powerful than the Hustler tides of 2022 “but I am not sure if it will do him any good in the national arena where politics without tribes is taking shape.” He added that “Gachagua’s decision to seek forgiveness from the Kenyatta family was great and helped win hearts to his side as in our community, the moment you ask for forgiveness, hostilities get sublimated but then again, it was better that he reconciled with someone like Raila Odinga as that aspect is more rewarding in politics.”

The National Youth Leader of the Democratic Congress, Ms Gladys Njoroge, said Gachagua has suffered from national stage fright and is obsessed with building alliances in the villages.

“Gachagua has become a political capitalist who has realised that his only route to relevance is tribal support. That is why he is more obsessed with making peace with groups like that of former President Uhuru Kenyatta. He is willing to create the idea that other communities have united against ‘us’ as a strategy to get sympathy votes,” he said.

Ms Njoroge fears that “as his rating on the Mountain goes up, the same is not happening at the national level and that scenario could present him with a problem as the 2027 and 2032 equations begin to form.” She feels that “Mr Gachagua’s fortunes are only rising in the Mount Kenya region and it can only serve him well in taking the region into the opposition in 2027 or into another alliance to oust his boss, President Ruto, from office.” Nyeri Governor Mr Mutahi Kahiga says “there was nothing wrong with Mr Gachagua in the first place, it is just that his boss groomed him to look bad.” Mr Kahiga says Gachagua was programmed to pick fights with the national front.

“He was forced to criticise Kenyatta and Odinga and also talk about an actionist government. The same people who framed him turned against him and started dismissing him as primitive, as well as sponsoring his isolation,” Kahiga said. Nation.Africa.

He said that “it is now that we are learning that we could be following a path into a possible political death trap if we are not careful in how we demand basic respect for our regional leader who is Gachagua and how we redefine our political character for the future.”

He said that “we must reject all schemes that seek to make us hate Gachagua.”

Buuri MP Rindikiri Murwithania said “Gachagua’s war against alcoholism in the Mount Kenya region has also endeared him to the locals but unfortunately it is being used against him.”

Kajiado North MP Onesmus Ngogoyo said: “We will not hate Gachagua, who is only fought for insisting on My Kenya unity, fairness in the allocation of resources and opportunities, as well as demanding that we be truthful in the way we govern and relate.”

He said that “those of us who subscribe to traditional respects for the hierarchical order will tell you that we must make him a local hero before we can take him to the world.”