Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. Photo/ Nation Media Group
In the cut-throat political arena, Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua, 58, is anything but subdued. If he is to fall, it will not be with a whimper, but with a resounding clamour. Gachagua has navigated the labyrinth of Kenyan politics, where power and intrigue intertwine, and his life has been nothing short of tumultuous. His tongue, sharp and relentless, is his motor, driving him through controversies and confrontations, never one to shy away from a fight. For Gachagua, silence is not an option, and retreat is a foreign concept.
In William Ruto, Gachagua has met his match, a formidable counterpart equally unyielding and fiercely ambitious. Two bulls in the paddock, each sizing the other up, neither willing to bow or surrender. Theirs is not a dance of diplomacy but a collision of egos, where silence is weakness and retreat, unthinkable. Both men have clawed their way through the thickets of power, navigating betrayals and alliances with razor-sharp instincts. Having reached the zenith of power, their clash is not just inevitable, it is imminent.
Gachagua’s misstep was a singular one, yet monumental. He sought to carve out a powerbase in a territory where President Ruto had already crowned himself the unchallenged kingpin. In the shadows of Mt Kenya, where loyalty to Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) pulsed like lifeblood, Gachagua’s presence seemed almost incidental. For even without his efforts, the hearts and minds of the region’s people were already Ruto’s to claim.
Gachagua knew this truth well. Yet, in a bold gambit, he positioned himself after Ruto’s victory as the gatekeeper, believing Ruto’s path to Mt Kenya should wind through him. But this move, far from securing his influence, appears to have unravelled spectacularly, like a miscalculated stroke in a game where the rules had long been set. Those who asked him to slow down were arrogantly dismissed, and soon he found himself isolated from the political elites and the “hustlers” that UDA had brought to politics.
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Gachagua meticulously built his Mt Kenya image by insulting Opposition leader Raila Odinga and former President Uhuru Kenyatta. He was brutal and spared no words. Mama Ngina Kenyatta was not spared either. Even after clinching victory, he kept the fires of Railaphobia burning bright, gleefully assuring his followers that he had laid traps at State House, and Raila would never set foot near the throne of power. But then, fate played its hand.
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