Rigathi Gachagua’s Democracy for Citizens Party has formed a seven-member vetting committee after a deadlock over whether defectors from President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance should be admitted without conditions. The split came at the 19th sitting at Outspan Hotel in Nyeri on August 2, 2026, when Murang’a Senator Joe Nyutu led a protest walkout of 16 of the 22 present. The party’s answer to the mess was not openness, but another committee.
Who Gets to Enter
John Methu, the secretary-general designate, will chair the panel. The other members are Nyutu, Senator Karungo Thang’wa of Kiambu, Kirinyaga Woman Representative Njeri Maina, Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara, her Kipipiri counterpart Wanjiku Muhia and Benjamin Gathiru of Embakasi Central. Methu said the committee came after 18 sittings involving different delegations since June 16, 2026, when Gachagua said he had commenced a 45-day conclave at his Wamunyoro Village home.
The fight is over who gets to cross the party gate and on what terms. According to the Nyandarua senator, admitting defectors from UDA has become a hot potato in DCP, with the clergy and elders applying pressure on Gachagua to show unifying leadership in the maxim of gather all, scatter none. That pressure sits alongside a more cynical fear: he said the government side has been quoted publicly saying through Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei that it will sponsor infiltrators to vie in opposition parties especially in Mt Kenya region. He asked, "How sure are we that such a move will not target DCP?"
He claimed that so far DCP has received 816 defection requests from government loyalists who allegedly include five Cabinet secretaries, eight principal secretaries, 83 National Assembly members, five senators, four governors and the rest being ward members and officers working in State corporations. One of the qualifications for vetting is that such individuals make a public declaration that they will not vie on parties associated with President William Ruto in the 2027 General Election. That’s the bargain: renounce one machine before entering another.
The Party’s Fear of Infiltration
Methu said no defector will be allowed to go directly to the party leader. He said some of them, after getting photographed with him, are launching falsehoods on how they gave him hefty bribes in exchange for direct tickets, while others are secretly recording their conversations with him and selling the clips to the government. In other words, even the handshake has become a commodity, and the clip economy keeps humming.
He said the DCP support base has remained unforgiving in the Mt Kenya region to supporters of Gachagua’s impeachment in October 2024 after he had served for two years as Deputy President. That history hangs over the whole affair. The party is trying to sort allies from enemies while carrying the memory of state-backed humiliation and the local anger that followed.
Newly-elected Ol Kalou MP Kamau Ngotho said Gachagua told the Outspan Hotel meeting that he had forgiven all those who voted to impeach him. Ngotho said Gachagua acted on the advice of clergy and elders and agreed that the impeachment vote should not be used against any leader, since nationally he was partnering with Edwin Sifuna of Linda Mwananchi pressure group, who also voted at the Senate to send him home, as well as with former President Uhuru Kenyatta and Dr Fred Matiang’i, who together had even arrested him several times in 2022 for political dissent.
That’s the old political theater in a cleaner suit. Forgive here, partner there, and keep the machinery moving.
Loyalty, Discipline, and the Gatekeepers
Mwea MP Mary Maingi said the vetting was evidence of Gachagua fashioning himself as a demigod to dictate the political destinies of aspirants in the Mt Kenya region, adding that "it is only God who will decide who gets elected or not". Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri said it is not the first time that Mt Kenya region is undergoing a rampage of "dictatorial and condescending mobilisation". He said that in the 2022 General Election, the region was under the UDA wave, but several, who included him, survived on The Service Party while others got elected on Jubilee ticket.
Kiunjuri added: "Likewise, Gachagua should not be too sure of himself… aspirants should not feel boxed into a corner by DCP… There is freedom of choice in the political market. The voters will vote for you on whatever party and Gachagua should not bully you into worshiping him".
Ngotho said Gachagua was protecting his turf and that the vetting is only for the willing. He said getting admitted into DCP is not a right but a privilege earned through winning its leadership and existing members’ confidence. He said Gachagua followers are the ones who have prevailed upon him that he risked admitting into DCP government spies and saboteurs as well as exposing loyalists who had stood with him and the party to imperfect competition in the hands of people who had accumulated lots of cash in government.
Jayne Kihara said the issue of defectors can only be summed up as acrimonious. She said Gachagua’s inner circle is emotional about withstanding all the humiliation of impeachment and persecution by goons and rogue police officers only to end up welcoming the persecutors into their fold. She said the committee agreed that the 'traitors' tag will only apply to those in the Mt Kenya voting bloc, while those outside the region will be admitted into DCP without conditions, adding that this was how Kajiado South MP Sakimba Parashina was unconditionally admitted into the fold.
Kihara said those associated with goons and rogue police officers, as well as those who were campaigning in Ol Kalou, should not waste their time seeking admission into DCP. She said others not to be admitted are those "who have been in government meetings and never protested when demeaning terms and threats were issued to Mt Kenya voters".
Nyutu said there are elected leaders who despite being in government have so far remained reserved and have not been attacking Gachagua and DCP. He said those are the ones they will vet. Nyutu said vetting of aspirants on DCP ticket for the 2027 election is critical since there is high likelihood that Gachagua will enter into a coalition. He said vetting is necessary because soon DCP will be in a coalition and coalition relationships are fluid, with many able to change allegiance once elected. He said vetting is for purposes of ascertaining loyalty, discipline and fidelity to the core values that drive Mt Kenya political, economic and social interests.
Karungo wa Thang'wa said the defectors issue had become a cohesion threat in the party and had to be treated with seriousness. He said Gachagua's insistence that they allow all willing to join sparked an intense debate and that they expressed fears of infiltration, sabotage and dismantling. He said there were strong feelings that genuine members were those who had stood with the people or the movement during its most difficult moments.
Njeri Maina said Gachagua insisted that DCP is under pressure to project an image of a consultative, accommodating and fair entity. She said DCP decisions must align with the people, especially in the consciousness that Mt Kenya voters are never led by their leaders but are the ones who dictate what wave the leaders should align with. She added that the decision reached by the majority was that even if Gachagua wanted to move together with everyone, there was need to have a vetting process to mitigate risks.
Maina said the vetting process will be impartial and will rely on feedback from the electorate, with the committee having rotational chairpersons and only acting as a guiding factor in the process and mimicking an adversarial system of approach. She said the ad-hoc vetting committee shall sit without any allowances. She said, "It is therefore not a money-making venture, its pure defined objective being to make a decision of whether to admit or not to. It shall not impose fines or demand admission fees."