Impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has hinted at a new strategy to expand his political bastions as he continues his political onslaught on President William Ruto.
Speaking during a church service at St Louis-Igwamiti parish in Ol Joro-Orok, Nyandarua county, Gachagua named Kisii, Ukambani, Maasailand and Western as his new areas of focus.
The former DP has always come under criticism for concentrating his campaigns only in his backyard.
“Let me tell you the people of Ol Joro-Okok, don’t get worried. As along as this house of ours remains united, that is what matters. So to the people of Embu, Meru and Kikuyu land, my job is to bring you together and they are tightly united,” Gachagua said on Sunday.
“We are now looking for friends in Kisii, Ukambani, Maasailand and Luhyaland land, we will be on the winning side.”
He said Nyandarua Senator John Methu would be among his point men in Mt Kenya region.
“I request you the people of Nyandarua to give me this young man to help me. Have you given him permission? So that as I travel to Kisii and Western regions, I can leave him here in the mountain as he monitors and unifies people so that our plans can keep falling into place,” the former DP said.
The former DP claimed that despite the Presidents’ visit to Nyandarua at least nine times, he had not fulfilled many of his promises.
Gachagua questioned the government’s intentions to fight illicit alcohol and drugs, a programme he led.
The former DP also de-campaigned allies of the President in the region, urging residents to ensure they vote them out— terming them betrayers.
“Even the war on the Mau Mau was prolonged by the collaborators. That’s why if a Mau Mau fighter met a collaborator and a mzungu with only one bullet to use, he would use it on the collaborator because they were worse,” he said.
“So the same way, even as we push to remove Ruto, let’s first start with these collaborators who have sold the community,” he said.
The former DP’s announcement comes on the heels of recent criticism by allies over his over-focus on Mt Kenya region.
Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba last month said Gachagua should look beyond Mt Kenya.
“Rigathi needs to realise that he has the mountain with him. He doesn’t have to talk much and punch again about the mountain. He already has it. He needs to be seen as more accommodating to other communities,” Wamuchomba told NTV.
“The same energy he’s using for the mountain, he needs to be seen to be advocating for the forgotten communities of this country.”
She said that he needs to get out and fight for the “Turkanas and Luos,” of this country.
Former Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri has also weighed on the matter, saying while he has not left Gachagua’s camp, there are things that he disagrees with him.
“When he says that this party is for Mlima, that's profiling Kikuyus in one basket. We might end up in 41 against 1 and I would not like to be in that deal.”
“I talk to him, I call him, and I tell him—why can’t you go to other regions? Go to Nyanza and Rift valley. People are demanding to see you. Even if you’re stoned there, it’s better politically. It shows that some people oppose you, but when you’re rejected in your own backyard, that’s a bigger problem,” Ngunjiri said last week.
