Gachagua woos Kalonzo into the Mt Kenya, Gema affiliation

DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and DAP-K’s Eugene Wamalwa during a meeting. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua on Tuesday unveiled high-level negotiations to advance a partnership between his DCP and Wiper Patriotic Front to boost the mountain region’s voice within the United Opposition ranks.

Addressing high-level delegations from the two parties at the end of a day-long meeting at his Wamunyoro residence in Nyeri County, Gachagua hinted at plans by the two parties to craft a working relationship to guide their participation in United Opposition activities as one seamless formation rather than as two separate groups representing competing interests in negotiation boardrooms.

“I want to ask for a strong partnership between the two parties as we engage with others. Mimi nauliza kwanza DCP na Wiper tuungane halafu tuongee na wengine. (I propose DCP and Wiper to form a partnership first, then we talk to others),” Rigathi said.

He added: “I want to say to you people of Mt Kenya South, please, from Wiper and DCP the next government will emerge. This cousins’ movement is a very serious thing...to be president you must be elected, to be elected you must have majority vote, for you to have the majority, numbers have to be mobilised. Am glad this mountain family is coming together,” Rigathi said.

He lamented that the region had undermined its political heft at the national level by not pulling together in the past, despite being essentially one people who shared strong historical, cultural and linguistic roots.

“My dream has come true. By coming together of Mt Kenya South and Mt Kenya East and West we now have a huge political machine that will shake and shape this country,” an elated Gachagua said.

Since November 2023, a series of cultural and political caucusing has been rolled out to revive and integrate the Ukambani region with the GEMA political and cultural affiliations after decades of alienation over differences among political leaders.

Gachagua and Kalonzo have formed a joint front of anti-KK administration forces resisting spirited attempts to split the mountain region’s rich vote basket into East and West, with Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku spearheading the pro-government split battalion.

The Kamba (Mt Kenya South), the Meru, Embu and Mbeere (Mt Kenya East), and Gikuyu (Mt Kenya West) share ancestral kinship and cultural roots in Tharaka-Nithi County, from where the Mt Kenya population sub-groups formerly known as the Thaagicu are said to have originated.

Before their historical dispersal some 400 to 500 years ago, these groups’ last common point of departure was “Igairo” (separation place) in present-day Chuka-Igamba Ng’ombe, according to folklore, historical accounts and anthropological studies.

In his 1969 doctoral thesis, A History of the Kikuyu 1500-1900, published in 1970, historian Prof. Godfrey Muriuki wrote:

“From oral, linguistic and archaeological evidence...the main body of the Kikuyu was preceded by early Iron Age Bantu-speaking occupants...Most probably these were the Thaagicu, who spread from Meru to Kambaland, and from Tharaka to the Kikuyu plateau. It is the Thaagicu who heavily intermingled with previous populations such as the Gumba and the Il Tikiri, leading to cross-fertilisation of ideas and institutions at a formative stage before the arrival of the present occupants.”

This then formed the first stage in the colonisation of the highlands by the Mt Kenya peoples, Muriuki writes.

The communities would later acquire the popular acronym GEMA during the colonial period, during the mass eviction of pro-Mau Mau Africans from Nairobi at the height of the State of Emergency under the brutal military operation code-named Operation Anvil, who were mainly from Mt Kenya peoples.

It is this same Thaagicu heritage that Riggy G has excavated and successfully deployed into a formidable political platform he has branded the “cousins” family movement, which has mobilised against the government of President William Ruto and his supporters ahead of the 2027 presidential contests.

Before his impeachment in 2024, Rigathi and former Attorney General JB Mururi were the highest-ranking faces of Ruto’s government in the region. Muturi resigned on his own accord, citing incompatible moral conflicts over government actions he could not put up with.

Among the consequential outcomes of this Thaagicu cousins’ innovation is that it has buoyed Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka into the ranks of presidential frontrunners, a position that has eluded him several times in the past.

Already, former Attorney General and Democratic Party leader (DP) JB Muturi has cast his lot with Kalonzo as his preferred choice for the United Opposition presidential flag bearer, if he (the former AG) won’t be picked.

On Tuesday, Riggy G said as much when he championed what he called a stronger partnership with Wiper Party and publicly voiced his love and respect for the former vice president.

“Tell Dr Kalonzo Musyoka we love him and we respect him very much,” Riggy G told the joint DCP-Wiper delegations.

The participation of the top politburo actors in the two parties underpinned the importance of the talks aimed at generating consequential commitments for both sides and their respective bastions of support.

On the Wiper side, Kalonzo’s allies, including lawyer Ndegwa Njiru, Senator Dan Maanzo, MPs Robert Mbui and Mohamed Ali, Deputy Governors and Speakers from Makueni, Machakos and Kitui counties, MCAs and Wiper party NEC members were present.

Nyandarua Senator and DCP Secretary General John Methu led the DCP delegation, accompanied by Kiambu Senator Karungo Thang’wa, Murang’a Senator John Nyutu, Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara, among other top officials.

The United Opposition is under public pressure to name its presidential flag bearer and running mate candidates to size up with the incumbents on the campaign trail, but internal conflicting ideas on the methodologies, timing, resources and roles of players and their teams are yet to be harmonised.

The emergence of a Thaagicu coalition between DCP and Wiper is bound to have implications for other players in the region, among them the Party of National Unity (PNU) of Peter Munya, DP of JB Muturi, People’s Liberation Party (PLP) of Martha Karua, and the Jubilee Party of Dr Fred Matiang’i, among others competing to nominate winning candidates from the same neighbourhoods.

DCP and its feisty party leader and secretary general, John Methu, have a penchant for repeating the mantra of “one region, one party and one leader”, which has grieved their rivals, who have publicly resented what they call bullying tendencies by the two, especially since DCP’s victory in the Ol-Kalou by-election last month.