•The imagery ‘shake off the snake’ has been deployed to show the urgency of the race against time.
•It’s a race not merely to deliver on UDA campaign promises, but also to offload those whose ambitions threaten the established order.
The countdown to the 2027 general election begins earlier than the count of days, weeks, months and years. Succession schemers know a week in politics can come with many unknowns. As Shengers say, ‘Mapema ndiyo best.’
No political interest group understands the urgency better than the rivalling factions of the ruling Kenya Kwanza regime. The conspiracy is getting hotter in the United Democratic Alliance’s corner of the regime.
The imagery ‘shake off the snake’ has been deployed to show the urgency of the race against time. It’s a race not merely to deliver on UDA campaign promises, but also to offload those whose ambitions threaten the established order.
The plot to tame ‘Truthful Man’ is in high gear, with key players pulling stunts on all fronts, including the pulpit. Leader of the Majority in Parliament, Kimani Ichung’wah, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, allied ethnic elders and MPs are on the run to isolate the ‘authentic kingpin’ of the Kikuyu and Gema-allied communities.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, the target of the conspiracy, is taking the plot in his stride. He won’t go down begging in silent surrender. He has unleashed his allies to counter the plot to derail him. ‘Kama mbaya ni mbaya (come what may)’ sounds like their resolve to treat contempt with contempt.
Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga, Embakasi North MP James Gakuya and Kiambu Senator Karungo Thang'wa, among others, are the strikers on the DP’s corner. They recognize the DP as their rallying point. The Senator and other allies of the DP are persuaded Ichung’wah, Kindiki and others are agents of a bigger force out to evict the DP.
The fightback among the DP’s allies is vicious. “We will be going for the owner of the dogs. We don’t throw stones at the barking dogs,” the Kiambu Senator told an emotionally charged crowd at Nairobi’s Wakulima market, last week.
“We want to tell Ruto that if he is tired of votes from Mt Kenya because he has found a new bride he should plan himself with that new bride and leave us alone. You’re telling us to stop 2027 politics, how can we stop while you’re in the same campaigns yourself?” said Gakuya, one of DP’s lead strikers.
The plight of traders in Wakulima market has imported the race to control the Mt Kenya region vote to Nairobi. The escalation of the scramble was expected. The majority of the traders are from Kiambu specifically, and Central Kenya generally, with a sprinkle of other Kenyans.
The traders have been eking out a living in the jua kali sheds in downtown Nairobi. Last week, some city restaurants ran out of fruits and greens because traders were demonstrating against relocation.
The attempts to relocate the traders to Kagundo Road, away from Mama Mboga’s decades-old market, offer a stage for key players in the UDA clash to send a potent message to architects of the ruckus.
Nairobi Governor John Sakaja, the executor of the Wakulima market relocation project, is caught up in the crossfire of the race for Mt Kenya kingpinship.
The DP and his allies are milking sympathy of Marikiti traders, largely made up of Mama Mboga and mkokoteni pushers who live on the edge around Marikiti. Greens from upcountry land at Wakulima for distribution to traders across the city.
The victims of the Marikiti quit notice are swallowing the bait of emotional speeches from the DP and his strikers. The irony of the hustler campaign message resonates with their failed expectations of a better life under the hustler administration.
The ethnic undercurrents of the UDA clash, which are spreading to other Kikuyu counties, are loud. It’s likely to backfire on Kindiki, who is being fattened as a possible replacement for the DP. Kindiki has been told big rivers don’t flow into streams.
Kindiki, a former Tharaka Nithi Senator, comes from a county of about 100,000 voters. Kiambu county alone, a Kikuyu base and a Nairobi dormitory, has about 1,200,000 registered voters.
Kindiki has been advised not to allow himself to be used to humiliate the DP. The DP is, for now, the official spokesman of the Kikuyu on account of his elevated position in government.
Kindiki has been cast into a role former Interior CS Fred Matiang’i played during the 2018-2022 presidential succession clash between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.
Acquiescent Kindiki is yet to learn the vanity of power. His cry in the Senate as the Uhuru regime ejected him from the Deputy Speaker’s office can still be heard, four years later.