Uhuru to decide Mt Kenya direction in 2027 elections

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta will play the pivotal role of deciding who Mt Kenya adopts as its 2027's presidential candidate if new structure of decision-making being pushed by area elders is adopted.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua--by virtue of being the senior-most elected leader in the region--will be the one to announce the publicly decided upon candidate, push for a recorded pact and also on what political party the community will board.

This revelation informs why Mr Gachagua has in the recent past been declaring that he is a man who listens to the ground and will be making critical announcement on the way forward.

On August 4, 2024, while on vernacular TV stations he announced that "I and Kenyatta are fully reconciled and are partnering on a major project to unite our people".

This was revealed to us by a member of the Kiama Kia Ma in Murang'a County Mr James Chombou on August 26, 2024, and confirmed by Kikuyu Council of Elders Chairman Mr Wachira Kiago who said efforts to issue a well defined leadership structure in the region are at an advanced stage.

The climax of the drive, they said, will be a community conference that will declare critical groundbreaking charters ahead of 2027.

This means that all aspiring presidential candidates wishing to court the populous vote of Mt Kenya will have to court Mr Kenyatta, Mr Gachagua and the area elders.

But the elders insist that tributaries drain into the big river, implying that as the biggest single voting block in the country, it will be their duty to seek tributaries to drain into Mt Kenya hence their duty to coronate 2027's presidential candidate.

This is an issue that has drawn Mr Gachagua's opponents to come out breathing fire, Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri dismissing the plot as isolationist.

He told us that "Mr Gachagua only seeks to make Mt Kenya an island that will have no national relevance".

"Mr Gachagua is engaged in establishing a tribal force hellbent to remove the region from the government and blackmail president William Ruto," Mr Kiunjuri claimed.

So far, Mzee Kiago has revealed that top engagements in shopping for presidential candidate so far remain to be the Ruto/Gachagua ticket, Raila Odinga, Wiper Party boss Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya, former Interior CS Dr Fred Matiang'i and others to emerge including Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru.

It is from this list that former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu--who insists that Dr Ruto must back down from the Mountain in 2027--had on Tuesday told AVDelta News that "plans managed by our elites and moneybags are underway to ensure 2027 is more organised to our favour".

"This time round we will not be ambushed like the way Dr Ruto did in 2022 and we will not front those of us seen like hooligans, or those we have now started regretting surrendering our trust for. We have serious people to win our endorsement," Mr Waititu said.

Mr Waititu besides naming the above potential presidential candidates, he added the names of Equity boss Mr James Mwangi, former Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor Ms Olive Mugenda and others.

Mathira MP Eric Wamumbi said there are those planning as ordinary human beings, “but they are not God who is the author of our collective destinies.”

In what might increase panic on President Ruto loyalists in Mt Kenya, the elders insist that the region’s interests appear threatened by the Kenya Kwanza Alliance administration, citing lack of seriousness to implement economic charters for the area as was promised during the 2022 campaigns.

“Economic and cultural transgressions are the ones that are making the Mt Kenya region sulk and get restive,”Mr Kiago said. 

At the centre of the scheme is harmonisation of Gachagua and Kenyatta roles in the political roadmap, key to the two's point of departure which are the sticks of authority (Mithigi) that are categorized into two--kingship and leadership.

The politics of the sticks of authority in the Agikuyu community have come to the fore after the 2022 General Elections that created two strong community leaders--an outgoing president and an incoming Deputy President.

Though Mr Kenyatta who was fronting Raila Odinga presidential bid managed only 13 percent of area votes, Mr Gachagua came in with 87 percent of the votes in favour of Dr Ruto, to become a president whose 47 percent of authority came from the Mountain alone.

Mr Chombou observed that what brought in problems in the community is that Gachagua wing continued to persecute the Kenyatta wing.

"It reached to a point even those who had voted against Mr Odinga in the region ganged up to express love and pity for the former president," Mr Chombou said.

The feelings that emerged in the Mountain, he added, were that Mr Gachagua had no ability to unite the region, elders insisting that Mr Kenyatta was better of continuing to play the role of kingpin and leader.

The elders ignored the fact that Mr Gachagua by virtue of being the senior-most political leader succeeding Kenyatta in the region stood the automatic chance of being handed the leadership stick, opting to have it continue being in the custody of the former head of state.

As Mr Gachagua battled to exercise the full trappings of his new authority, he stepped on many toes, coming out as man at war with everyone and everything.

But after Mr Gachagua came out a changed man after after a year and a half in power, he apologised to the Kenyatta family and also declared that he had healed his negative energies.

"I came into power a very bitter man owing to the persecutions that I had been taken through by the Kenyatta regime. I was badly wounded and persecuted, but after more than one year of being prayed for by my wife (Pastor Dorcas Rigathi), I have healed completely to a point that I now only desire peace," Mr Gachagua declared on June 3, 2024, while in Meru County.

It is out of such character development that the elders now feel that time is high that Mr Gachagua was trusted with the leadership stick (Mutongoria) and Kenyatta be recognised as the community king (Muthamaki).

According to Kiama kia Ma national patron Mr Kung'u Muigai who incidentally is Mr Kenyatta's cousin, the leadership stick in the custody of the former head of state will be oiled to upgrade it to that of Muthamaki.

"Mr Gachagua will now be handed a leadership stick and their roles be well defined. In the new roles, Mr Kenyatta will not be engaging in day to day political tussles and theatrics, only confined to advising and arbitrating," Mr Muigai said.

He added that DP Gachagua will be tasked with implementing decisions arrived at the council of the king.

"With the advice and consultations of Mr Kenyatta and the elders, Mr Gachagua will take the region to political wars, negotiations and sealing of pacts," Mr Muigai said.

This means that the emerging rebellion by the likes of Mr Kiunjuri and National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah and President's newly appointed economic advisor Mr Moses Kuria who in the recent past have been progressing an anti-Gachagua agenda, might find themselves summoned before Mr Kenyatta for arbitration with Mr Gachagua.

Mr Ichung'wah has constantly also declared that “I will never submit myself to small gods”.

“My loyalty is to God,” Mr Ichung'wah said, his fears remaining restricted to hot porridge only.

Mr Kiago said how Mr Gachagua and Mr Kenyatta choose to relate ahead of 2027 "will define our redemption moment since even to a kid, it is not in doubt that we are treading on dangerous grounds politically".

He said "a lot of work has been going on bringing together elders, clergy, business community, and societal groups to bring the two together".

He said "so far we can report that we are on good course since the 2022 hostilities that saw Mr Gachagua and Mr Kenyatta divides exchange bitter words have now been pacified, arbitrated and reconciled".

Mr Kiago said bringing Gachagua and Uhuru together for 2027 decision is not an illusion but an urgency, it's not a fantasy but a crucial necessity.