Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s escalating confrontation with leaders from North Eastern Province (NEP) is increasingly being interpreted as a calculated political move rather than a spontaneous fallout.
At its core, the dispute is about dismantling Jubilee Party’s remaining pillars of strength and redirecting that support to his Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP).
What many overlook is a simple political arithmetic: a significant number of Jubilee’s elected leaders in the current Parliament, MPs, senators, and governors, come from North Eastern. While Jubilee’s influence in Mt Kenya has been under sustained pressure, NEP has remained one of the party’s most resilient regions. For Gachagua, this reality presents a problem.
Political insiders argue that Gachagua’s strategy is to weaken Jubilee in its two strongest bases—Mt Kenya and North Eastern—leaving it hollowed out and unable to mount any serious challenge in 2027.
In Mt Kenya, the approach has been to crowd Jubilee out through optics, branding dominance, and political pressure. In North Eastern, the method appears more confrontational: openly clashing with leaders to either force defections to DCP or clear the ground for rival candidates aligned to his party.
The logic is straightforward. If Jubilee leaders from NEP remain intact, they provide the party with parliamentary numbers, bargaining power, and national relevance. If they fragment or defect, Jubilee loses its backbone. Gachagua, meanwhile, stands to gain either way, by absorbing defectors into DCP or benefiting from weakened incumbents facing DCP-backed challengers.
North Eastern voters have historically supported Jubilee despite it being perceived as Mt Kenya–led, delivering substantial votes and elected leaders.
Gachagua believes that constituency can be recaptured under a new banner, especially if Jubilee is politically rebranded as a regional party elsewhere.
Critics warn that this scorched-earth approach undermines national parties and deepens regional polarization. But for Gachagua, the objective appears singular: eliminate Jubilee as a competitor and consolidate political leverage ahead of 2027, even if it means burning bridges along the way.
