Health CS Aden Duale is dismissing Rigathi Gachagua’s assertion that Mt Kenya can marshal seven million votes, saying it is a political overstatement by the impeached DP, insisting the numbers on the ground do not add up.
Duale, in firm and unapologetic language on Saturday, said the region Gachagua has been banking on does not come close to the figure being peddled in political rallies.
According to him, the actual vote count associated with the Mt Kenya bloc stands at about 3.8 million, and even that number, he argued, drops significantly once one factors in Kenyans living in the region but originating from other parts of the country.
“Anapiga kifua ati yeye ako na kabila yake iko na milioni saba ya kura. Hakuna milioni saba. Kura yao yote mimi nimehesabu ni 3.8 million. Ukitoa zile kura wale Wakenya wanaishi huko, wanabaki na 2.5 million,” Duale said.
Gachagua has repeatedly argued that the mountain’s numbers can shape the direction of the race, and his political camp has framed the region as central to any serious national coalition.
But Duale is not buying that script.
Instead, the CS is pushing a different arithmetic altogether, one that moves away from the mountain alone and leans into what he describes as a broader national alliance anchored on Coast, North Eastern, and the Muslim and Christian blocs.
“Mimi na Hassan Joho na hawa viongozi sisi tutaunganisha North Eastern na Coast na Waislamu wote na ndugu zetu Wakristo. Coast na North Eastern, Insha’Allah, we are going to raise seven million votes,” he said.
According to Duale’s logic, the race to State House will not be won by one region alone, but by stitching together multiple communities into a bloc large enough to rival the numbers Gachagua has been brandishing.
