How Uhuru's return will unsettle Gachagua Ruto camps

The return of Former President Uhuru Kenyatta to active politics has rattled President William Ruto’s and unsettled former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s camps, and at the same time complicated the 2027 General Election matrix.

Last week, Uhuru was in Muranga to introduce former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi, where he revisited his 2022 warning against voting for President Ruto, expressing regret that his caution was not heeded.

In his remarks, which have revived his frosty relationship with Ruto during his reign, Uhuru urged the Mt Kenya residents to rally behind Matiang'i as he was visionary and a workaholic who would complete the projects his administration stalled after leaving office.

“In 2022, I warned you about these people, but you didn’t listen to me. I hope now you are ready to support leaders who are genuinely committed to transforming this country,” he said.

Irritated by Uhuru’s remarks as they seek to legitimize Kenya Kwanza administration, Ruto’s allies have threatened to strip his retirement perks if he continues playing politics.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargey warned Uhuru to stop playing politics, a failure to which the government would remove all his perks.

“Please stay at home and watch this country being transformed and if you play around we shall remove all your retirement benefit perks, we shall recall your security and other benefits, you can’t use government resources to fight the government, we can’t give you the office, cars and infrastructure so that you can fight the government. If you don’t believe in that government, we are going to remove those benefits,” the Senator said over the weekend.

According to analysts, Kenyans should expect more reactions from Ruto’s allies who will be out to discredit Uhuru and engage in personalized attacks against him and his family, a move they note will reduce Uhuru’s statesmanship.

Lawyer Kibe Mungai noted that there was a vacuum in terms of the country’s statesmanship, which Uhuru filled as a result of President Ruto’s failures, and that Uhuru’s engagement in politics will see him stripped of that honor.

“Ruto is a polarizing leader who keeps talking about the Opposition; he makes it look like any leader of the Opposition has leprosy. As a Head of State,  he has failed to remove himself from partisanship in local politics. We need a leader who can stand above everybody else in terms of national solidarity and that is why Kenyans have increasingly been looking for Uhuru to play that role,” Mungai noted.

According to Mungai, Uhuru’s return to active politics will also see an all-out sibling rivalry between the Jubilee and Gachagua’s Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) as they fight for dominance in Mt Kenya region, where the two parties enjoy huge influence.

“The two parties are not going to be easy on each other.  They will try to outshine each other even as they belong to the same political association of the United Opposition,” the lawyer noted.

Meshac Odede, a political commentator, noted that Gachagua had hoped to harvest all the elective positions from Mt Kenya region, but that hope may be wished away after Jubilee’s reinvigoration.

“The DCP leader was looking at an opportunity that is going to be available for him within the region to harvest as many elected leaders under his party, be it MCAs, governors Senators and MPs so that he's got power to negotiate with whatever government that is formed at that particular time but this is the same constituency that Jubilee is also looking at. When you look at the influence of Jubilee, however small or big, it can only be bigger in Mount Kenya compared to other regions in the country. Horns are going to lock in Mount Kenya between Jubilee,” he said.

Fred Okang’o, a political analyst, noted that Uhuru’s return was informed by the influence that Gachagua was enjoying from Mt Kenya and having felt threatened, he decided to make a comeback to the political scene.

“Uhuru could be threatened by the dominance that Gachagua is now exercising Mt Kenya politics. Gachagua had formed a party and told the people of the region that it was going to be their party. He had claimed it was the party of the region and he recruited many people and I think at that point Jubilee party might have felt threatened,” Okang’o noted.

He said the competition may disadvantage Gachagua, opining that he would not succeed in pushing the agenda of his party in Mt Kenya as the two would fought for the available elective slots.

Former Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu opined that Uhuru’s return and the revival of the former ruling party threatened Gachagua’s supremacy and that Uhuru’s clarion call for the end of insults would deny him a chance to baptize the Jubilee ‘a red wheelbarrow’ to create a perception that the party was supporting Ruto’s re-election bid.

“He has been really uncomfortable with the reemergence of Jubilee because it's the one party that threatens his supremacy. When set up his party he intended for that party to be the only party in the Mt Kenya region, and that had been his clarion call.

"It's a call he's made very many times publicly, so the one party that is actually a threat to him is the Jubilee party so he tagged us as a red wheel so that he could try and connote us as a party that belongs to the government,” Wambugu said.

He added, “By telling   Jubilee  members not to insult Gachagua, he left him in a bit of a problem because every time he insults us, he will look funny because you're insulting a party where the party leaders have already given instructions to his troops not to insult hi,m so now Gachagua can't call us a red wheel.”

Wambugu said Uhuru’s directive for Jubilee leaders to stop attacking Gachagua was not an indication that the two could work together as he associated Uhuru’s parable about two men and a monkey to Gachagua.

“He gave a parable of two men who went to the market with a goat and a monkey. One wise man remembered he had come to buy a goat but the other got carried away and bought the monkey. He was saying 2027 is going to be a marketplace, and I asked somebody who was entertaining people in Mt Kenya right now,” claimed Wambugu.