Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. Photo/Newsflash
Wanderi Kamau and Georgina Mwikali
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has announced that he will give the Mt Kenya region the much awaited ‘political direction’ next Sunday, 9th February 2025.
In December last year, Gachagua indicated that he would announce the new direction towards the end of January 2025, after holding extensive consultations with various stakeholders in the populous region.
His announcement has elicited political anxiety in the region, which has seemingly fallen out with President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza regime following Gachagua’s dramatic impeachment in October.
Addressing his supporters in Murang’a County on Sunday, 2nd February 2025, Gachagua said that he will issue the direction so that the region will avoid finding itself in the current political quagmire it is undergoing in future.
“Let me say this, on Sunday, 9th February, I will speak so that I can tell you where we shall head as a community. This is to ensure that in future, we don’t find ourselves in the political abyss we are in. I will tell you the vehicle we shall aboard…it is a vehicle that will take us to the destiny that our God wishes us to reach,” said Gachagua in his native Gikuyu language.
On Sunday, an insider in Gachagua’s camp told Newsflash that the announcement will be the launching of a new political party.
While it is not yet clear on which party will be Gachagua’s new political vehicle, Newsflash has reliably learnt that the former Deputy President may join Democratic Party (DP), a party associated with former president, the late Mwai Kibaki.
According to political observers, the new move is expected to cripple Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) in Mt Kenya region.
Mt Kenya massively voted for Ruto’s UDA in the 2022 general elections after his fallout with retired president Uhuru Kenyatta.
UDA’s support was also seen as the region’s defiance towards Uhuru’s decision to throw his weight behind veteran politician Raila Odinga. The locals accused Uhuru of shortchanging Ruto, after supporting him to win presidency for two terms – 2013 and 2017.
Earlier, Kimilili legislator Didmus Barasa had sensationally claimed that Gachagua would be allowed to go back to UDA “after reforming”.
“When the right time comes, even the Rigathi Gachagua who we impeached will be brought back when we need him. He was only unsuitable to serve as Deputy President, but he can still be a voter and a member of our coalition. I am sure he will undergo some rehabilitation,” said Barasa during a church service at Kapsang’, Uasin Gishu County.
