UDA engages high gear in Mbeere North by-election campaign
A few months back Rigathi Gachagua was camped in the US where he was expecting to break open his presidential WANTAM campaign to the whole world and make him the front runner for the United Opposition.
Gachagua’s US walking rallies turned out to be a complete disaster for him. His tribalism out there was so sickening that young Kenyans of Kikuyu origin who came to his meetings told him to cool down on his tribalism otherwise he would kill any hope of the opposition beating Ruto in 2027.
Gachagua was forced to run back to Wamunyoro cutting short his planned two months walk around in the US.
Here is what Valentine Wanjiru Githae told Rigathi Gachagua in Baltimore.
July 27, 2025
“My name is Valentine Wanjiru Githae, and I am here representing the 625 Movement. And mheshimiwa, we are here to tell you the truth, and if we don’t tell the truth as Gen Zs we are doomed to fail, and Kasongo will be back in power,” she stated.
“You need to start positioning yourself as a national leader and not a tribal leader. I know many people won’t like what I am saying, but it is the truth. The first mistake that has been done in this event is speaking Kikuyu,” she added.
“I watched your speech about you in Boston, and there is something you said that the Kikuyu are more hardworking; we have grown the country. But we have done that because we are a beneficiary of Jomo Kenyatta,” she added.
Valentine Wanjiru Githae, directly confronted the former DP over what she termed as divisive rhetoric that undermines national unity.
She told Gachagua to reframe his political approach if he hopes to challenge President William Ruto effectively in 2027.
Wanjiru, who hails from Mathira—Gachagua’s rural home—criticised the decision to begin the meeting by addressing attendees in Kikuyu.
While acknowledging her own Kikuyu heritage, she warned against perpetuating ethnic-based leadership narratives.
“If we position ourselves as Kikuyu, another tribe will also do that, and before we know it, we are back to the same problem,” she cautioned.
Wanjiru also took issue with remarks Gachagua made during a rally in Boston, where he described the Kikuyu as the “drivers of the Kenyan economy” due to their hard work.
She argued that such statements reinforce tribal entitlement and ignore the broader contributions of other Kenyan communities.
“We cannot say that people from other tribes are not hardworking. We have that sense of entitlement as Kikuyus, and it has to stop. If I do not say that, I will not be telling Mheshimiwa the truth,” she asserted.
Rigathi Gachagua strongly defended his consistent focus on the Mt. Kenya region, dismissing claims that he is stoking tribal divisions.
“My daughter, if you follow what happened two weeks before I came to America, you will realise why I have to defend the Mt. Kenya people,” Gachagua stated. “Businesses for the Mt. Kenya people were targeted for destruction. In other areas, they were not destroyed. This is because they wanted to intimidate the people of that region into silence.”
Obviously Gachagua was shocked when a young Kenyan from his own tribe told him in his face that tribalism is bad and cannot work for Kenya if every tribe just grouped themselves as such for political power.
Facing that authentic backlash which he could not blame on other tribes fighting him, Gachagua knew he got everything wrong when he was championing himself as the Gen Z leader and here is one of them telling him they are not interested in tribalism as they fight for a better country for all.
After that US debacle Gachagua came back and his party leaders were busy manufacturing false claims that Gachagua was going to be arrested at JKIA because of his stupid statements asking the Trump government to put sanctions on Kenya for things only known to him.
Gachagua party Secretary General Cleophas Malala announced that they had a secret plan (which they were announcing) to have Gachagua plane to take him to Kisumu International Airport and then he would travel from there to Nairobi with one million people escorting him.
President Ruto ignored Gachagua’s theatrics and the US never paid attention to his calls to punish Kenya. How a person who wants to be the president of Kenya would ask that his country be punished with economic sanctions is hard to understand by normal people but Gachagua thought it was a great idea. By the way, what happened to that Malala guy. He has disappeared.
Today Gachagua has launched the campaign of his entire political life for the November 27, 2025 by-elections where he intends to announce that his WANTAM campaign is heading to State House by winning seats everywhere. As usual Gachagua and his team are screaming about voters being beaten and killed by the Ruto government.
In Mbeere North Gachagua is camping there full time same as he did in the US and he will only leave on November 28, 2025 after winning the seat. Gachagua is walking into the homes of Mbeere North residents and I am even scared he will start walking into the toilets to find if anybody is hiding there from him.
The one thing I like about the Gachagua door to door campaign is that you get to see the terrible conditions in which Kenyans live while their leaders like Gachagua live in mansions and palaces in Nairobi and Wamunyoro. Those leaders starting with Gachagua have no idea or any plans to improve those living conditions because they have their own agenda. For Gachagua it is WANTAM and Kenyans can live in caves as long as he achieves his goal. Really? We will see on November 27, 2025.
By Gachagua putting everything on the forthcoming by-elections and Ruo kind of staying away from it while his hand to hand people in the field, if Gachagua loses then on November 27, 2027 he will not be an impeached Deputy President but the voters will be impeaching him completely from being relevant to Kenya politics going forward. It would a sink hole for the United Opposition.
On their side UDA is doing everything to win the by-elections from what we see in media reports. On Friday a high-powered delegation led by Deputy Party Leader and Deputy President Kithure Kindiki swept through Ngunyumu and Kune, urging residents to back Muthende as the most suitable candidate to advance the development agenda started by former MP Geoffrey Ruku, who was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Public Service.
“We are not asking you to vote for Leonard Wamuthende without reason,” Kindiki said.
“We are asking you to support him because we know he will continue tarmacking roads, connecting households to electricity, expanding water projects and managing bursaries as effectively as Ruku did, if not better.”
Kindiki criticised Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua for what he termed as divisive politicking during the campaign period.
He accused Gachagua of disparaging Embu leaders and sowing discord among locals instead of focusing on his party’s candidate.
“I warn him not to bring divisive politics here,” he said.
“Even after the by-election, our people must coexist peacefully. Mbeere North voters are interested in a candidate’s agenda, not divisions.”
UDA chairperson and Embu Governor Cecily Mbarire urged residents not to elect an opposition MP, saying it would be counterproductive.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
