Deputy President Kithure Kindiki told more than 20,000 grassroots leaders at Kinoru Stadium that he would vanquish his predecessor, Rigathi Gachagua, in the fight for control of the Mt Kenya region ahead of the 2027 General Election. The gathering brought governors, senators and MPs, village elders, Community Health Promoters, former councillors, and former and current MCAs into one stadium to hear the ruling side’s pitch. That’s the machinery of power in plain sight: a state-backed political bloc trying to lock down a vote-rich region before the ballots even exist.
Who Has the Power
Prof Kindiki said the meeting was meant to prepare an army of government supporters who are well-versed in President Ruto's track record. He also said the gatherings were meant to update grassroots leaders about the implementation of the Bottom-Up Transformation Agenda and turn them into informed government ambassadors in the grassroots. The language is blunt. The purpose is not debate, but discipline. If the people are not informed about what the government has done, he warned, they will be easily misled by the opposition.
He said he was working round the clock to avoid being outsmarted by the opposition, while Mr Gachagua has vowed to lock out President William Ruto from the Mountain as the country moves toward the election. Prof Kindiki called the coming contest the "mother of all political fights" and said he had never campaigned for any President in Mt Kenya and failed to win. "The opposition should not dare mess with me," he said. "Gachagua has been having an easy time in the Mountain because we were busy working as they campaigned. Let him know that I am a lethal striker in political campaigns."
Who Gets Managed
The people being managed here are the residents of Mt Kenya East, along with the broader region that both men claim to control. Prof Kindiki said he would wipe out the opposition's influence in the year toward the General Election and dismissed the Democracy for Citizens Party leader Rigathi Gachagua as a paper tiger. He challenged him to a face-off, saying, "Let us meet face to face and contend man to man to distinguish between the genuine leader and the fake one. Those who have been bragging around are just paper tigers. President Ruto and I are well prepared for them. They have spread enough lies."
He said the difference between his side and the opposition would be seen when Kenyans demand each leader's track record. "Their only record is calling us nicknames," he said. "My friend, your days are numbered." That’s the language of hierarchy dressed up as political competition. The message to ordinary people is simple: line up behind the apparatus, or get treated as misled.
Prof Kindiki enumerated the Kenya Kwanza administration's four-year track record and urged enhanced sensitisation of Kenyans. He said President Ruto had impacted almost all sectors of the economy through subsidies in agriculture, employment of more than 100,000 teachers, stabilisation of the shilling against the dollar, lowering prices of flour, among others. He also said the price of raw milk has increased under this administration and that healthcare had been transformed through the Social Health Authority. The claims sit side by side, the usual state script: praise the subsidies, count the hires, point to the currency, and hope the people don’t notice what still costs them.
What They Call Order
The political operation didn’t stop at speeches. On Saturday, Prof Kindiki hosted more than 20,000 grassroots leaders from Meru, Tharaka-Nithi, Embu and Isiolo counties at Kinoru Stadium. The meeting included governors, senators and MPs, village elders, Community Health Promoters, former councillors, and former and current MCAs. It came a day after he met 15,000 UDA polling centre officials, whom he told to act as the ruling party's ambassadors. That’s not neutral civic engagement. It’s a top-down effort to convert local structures into campaign infrastructure.
He also rallied residents to support a recent declaration by councils of elders to unite the Mt Kenya region behind the government. "Mt Kenya is one politically, socially, economically, as well as culturally. Only a few people want to divide us," Prof Kindiki said. He added that Mt Kenya East councils of elders had committed to start talks with Mt Kenya West elders and that they awaited their direction. The elders, the governors, the party officials, the clergy — everyone gets folded into the same political machine, each group told to help hold the line.
Governors Cecily Mbarire of Embu, Muthomi Njuki of Tharaka-Nithi and Isaac Mutuma of Meru vowed to join the Deputy President in rallying the Mt Kenya region behind President Ruto. Ms Mbarire said, "It is time for our neighbours in the west to show whether they can give back the good we have done to them over the years. We must reject any leader who comes here to insult Prof Kindiki. We will not be afraid of showing our support for this government." Governor Njuki said they would defend the Deputy President's seat by helping consolidate the vote-rich region in support of President Ruto. "We wish to remind our friends in ODM of the saying that: 'If it is working, do not change it.' It is our position that Kindiki should remain Deputy President beyond 2027," he said.
Earlier, a preachers' lobby in Meru vowed to deplatform politicians who champion the political split of the Mt Kenya region voting bloc, calling it politics of hate. The Meru Clergy Forum, which expressed support for Prof Kindiki, also called on all churches in the country to block politicians using goons and inciting violence as the country gears towards the 2027 General Election. Bishop Peter Imuru said, "Political competition should never become an excuse for violence, hatred and destruction. Peace must be protected by all citizens."