Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is a man under siege, literally.
But training his guns, albeit indirectly, at the President is opening the battle dam too early. First, while acknowledging that his working relationship is cordial with William Ruto, he in the same breath accuses those he says are close to the President of brewing trouble in Mt Kenya.
That is by extension telling Ruto to hold his attack dogs on a tight leash. He also alludes to huge sums of money and choppers at the disposal of the young leaders (read Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, his Kapseret counterpart Oscar Sudi, etc) to ostensibly cause trouble in the Mountain.
Without talking about their closeness with Ruto, the DP could have conveyed his message by just mentioning the names of the MPs he feels are causing political unrest in his region.
Again, the group he mentions doesn't comprise one-term MPs. Most of them are in their third term, a factor that makes his claims of inability to hire choppers and make cash donations far-fetched if not diversionary. To decipher the DP's world, one needs to look at Central Kenya politics.
While President Mwai Kibaki left them in the hands of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, the latter wanted to succeed and has continued to actualise that through proxies who capitalise on the discontent and rumbling in Mt Kenya region. The immediate import of such brickbats has regional and national connotations.
As the DP struggles to galvanise his home base against the onslaught of mostly young leaders, he is losing out on the bigger picture, which is the Kenyan project, thus alienating himself from a constituency so critical for him to be president. By now he should have had Mt Kenya at his beck and call then project a national face.
Two, is the fact that Uhuru is not willing to let go of the Central kingpin mantle or bury the hatchet with the DP.
In fact, he is on a mission to reclaim some of the vestiges he lost due to the change of guard and toxic politics of 2022. Dealing with the jostling in the Mountain and carefully handling the Uhuru factor will give the DP leverage, otherwise, they will remain a thorn in his flesh and the elephant in his room.
Economic and political analyst
