Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has affirmed the unity of the Mount Kenya region, rubbishing as sheer propaganda claims that the bloc has abandoned his boss William Ruto.
The DP, who is under siege from a section of Mt Kenya politicians over the 2022 Ruto running mate contest, said the president is the ‘king of the mountain’.
Gachagua who spoke at Kianjai Market in Meru County said on Thursday that the region remains firmly behind the president just like in 2022 and that nothing has changed.
The DP said the opposition will not beat President Ruto in the Mt Kenya region even in the 2027 polls.
“I have heard those people claim that they will defeat the president here at the mountain, I want to tell those ODM people that the mountain has no business with you," Gachagua said.
Gachagua insisted that just as the region ‘rejected the ODM people’ in the last elections, so will they denounce him in 2027.
“You were brought here by the system but we rejected you, as a region, we shall stand with President William Ruto,” he added.
Gachagua was reacting to claims made by Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni who on Monday claimed Mt Kenya voters will bring down Ruto in the 2027 general election.
"Let me tell you today, Mt Kenya people may not have taken part in the demos. They may not even take part in future demos. But the people that will force the guy out are from Mt Kenya," he said during an interview with Spice FM on Monday.
He claimed most residents from the region were disappointed with the Kenya Kwanza administration, even though they didn’t express their disappointment in street protests.
"The percentage of people who have said enough is enough is beyond anything we had imagined sometime last year," he said.
Gachagua used the occasion to promise that the region will stand together as a bloc in 2027 for Ruto just as it did in 2022.
He cautioned people he termed as youthful politicians that they should cautiously study and understand the nature of the politics of Mt Kenya.
“I want them to know that as a region we speak in one voice from Nyeri, Laikipia, Nakuru, Murang’a, Kiambu and Kirinyaga," he said.
“We don’t want anybody to try to divide Mt Kenya based on counties that you come from Meru and you from Kiambu."
The DP spoke against the backdrop of heightened succession politics in Mt Kenya that has seen some politicians from Kiharu MP Ndidi Nyoro as Ruto’s 2027 running mate.
The politicians who include youthful MPs from the UDA party want Ruto to drop Gachagua saying Nyoro is best suited to deputise the president in his second term.
The succession politics have triggered a political storm in the region, forcing the president and his deputy to rebuke those pushing the succession narrative.