Why Gachagua's break from power is good for Kenya, deserves a hearing

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during the unveiling of of his new party, Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) in Nairobi, on May 15, 2025. [Collins Oduor, Standard] Kenya's political stage continues to attract dramatic players from what might be described as 'strange political planets'. In 1992, the Kanu government supplied the opposition with quite a number causing confusion but culminated into political formations that in the long run took power and instituted reforms. Currently, no figure symbolises this phenomenon better than the unexpected emergence of Rigathi Gachagua in the trenches of opposition politics. Welcome to the trenches, classmate Geoffrey. Last week, the former Deputy President launched a political party whose numerical potential demands attention. "The fall and rise" could aptly describe Gachagua's political odyssey. His escapades as a youth in the days of the struggle against the Kanu government, morally, speaking represented a fall because it was anti change. He was one of the young men who was afraid of real political battles and chose to conform. That positioned him in the system and gave him the space and comparative advantage to dramatise his devotion to the defense of the system. He did this "successfully" in his university days, getting himself financial benefits albeit to the pain of his colleagues. After college he excelled as a part of the ruling party's instruments of coercion through his position as a member of the provincial administration - in those days referred to as Bwana DO. Should Gachagua's stepping stone to the helm of our politics disqualify his party for our consideration? If history has to speak, then the following issues deserve our attention. Since independence, governance has been the preserve of the individualistic, rich and unholy. Those who gain admission into that class have to have been socialised into the ways and ethics of the club as epitomised by my classmate, Rigathi. Kibaki's mugumo tree adage The former Deputy President opposed reforms in the past just as Kenyans third president Mwai Kibaki did while he served in a more powerful position when he was minister in the President Daniel Moi Government. The proverbial metaphor that likened the attempt to remove KANU from power was like trying 'to cut a mugumo tree using a razor blade' came from Kibaki. Further the country's parliamentary Hansard records that Kibaki was the MP who seconded a motion to make Kenya a one party state and that party was KANU. And so if we quantify Kibaki's role in protecting the status quo and use that as a yardstick for measuring Gachagua's credentials as an enemy of change, then Kibaki should never have been elected. If you developed a list of the top ten viable presidential candidates, all share this denominator. All descend from the same conservative tree. Kalonzo Musyoka, Fred Matiang'i, Musalia Mudavadi, Raila Odinga, Moses Wetangula, William Ruto... A step further into the past gives us Jomo Kenyatta and Uhuru. Gachagua's uncomfortable past is similar to that of his competitors hence dismissing him on this ground while embracing others amounts to an exercise in double standards. Is Gachagua a negative force in our politics today? This is synonymous with asking whether there can be a change of mind in Gachagua. Students of revolutionary theory know that the only permanent phenomenon in society is "change". During the American civil war of 1861, President Abraham Lincoln illustrated a similar situation. He had proclaimed during his campaign for presidency that people had a right to shake off a government they did not like. When the South decided to secede from the federation, he rejected their resolve and led a war for the formation of the United States of America. A citizen approached him and asked him why he had changed his mind. He replied: "And I do not think much of anyone who is not wiser today than he was yesterday". Why shouldn't we embrace and celebrate Gachagua's Damascus moment? Pessimism about whether he will stay the course is a subject for the future and therefore a nonissue. What is important is the moral direction he is deploying his resources both intellectual and material. In our context, he is chipping at the failed regime in power. Opposition gap The departure of the mainstream leadership of ODM led by Raila created a gap in our national political life. Brave and suicidal voices vanished. To illustrate, when the Kenya Defence Forces Commander, General Francis Ogola died in a helicopter crash, all in leadership named the murderer in private conversations. All including the "broad based" people at high levels. Whispers were loud but voices were not heard. The muzzled opposition could not dare upset the eating season by undermining tranquility. Now we know that it was because their mouths were full. None faced the camera to make the "known" disclosures public. A major highlight was how the established opposition leaders handled the Gen Z murders. They took sides with the State and could not dare show adequate solidarity with the victims. They did not support funerals costs of the youth who were killed as before. They stayed away from burial ceremonies when the victims had died emulating our rich history of resistance spearheaded by the same leaders of the opposition. Most recently, the leadership of the Gen Z took a stand on rigged election in 2027 saying they would reject the outcome. That is not new. It is a replay of the "No reforms no elections" of 1987. That commonsensical proclamation only received endorsement from Rigathi. "Broad based people" kept quiet. His intervention could be viewed as pre-emptive of State violence on the little known youth. That amounts to doing the Lords work in tough time. Is Gachagua on a selfish mission? His brand of selfishness could be of a different quality because it coincides with the enhancement of public good. He is a wounded lion attacking fellow carnivorous lions to the advantage of the people, who are antelopes - so to speak. Only a mad antelope would pray for the unity of purpose of the lions. We must borrow from Chairman Mao Zedong: When you fight an enemy using another enemy's fist, you spare your own to fight another day. A regime of Ruto's degree of intransigence calls for a united front with open doors to all the aggrieved. Secondly, Gachagua has an obstacle having been impeached. That he knows this and still invests in this struggle translates into some reasonable degree of selflessness that deserves applauding. In my past published critique of Riggy G in The Standard, I said that "given a chance Riggy G would be better as a leader due to lessons learned" So far, I am vindicated. He has been speaking reform language since the fall out with his boss. It is now clear that Ruto has lost an important soldier in his arm. The positive confusion in ODM, the strong voices of Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, Siaya Governor James Orengo's rebelliousness, Nyong'o's sobriety and the strengthened voice of the unknowns are drinking from Gachagua's well of courage and determination. No wonder critics of Sifuna can associate his rebelliousness to the positions taken by Gachagua. It is not outrageous to give credit to Riggy G for inspiring bravery in a society under the heavy boot of a coercive state. Additionally, if the ongoing national struggle for change was a guerrilla war of national liberation, we can comfortably say that the Mt Kenya region is a liberated zone from Ruto courtesy of General Gachagua's effort in mobilizing the people. This is closely followed by Ukambani and Kisii under General's Kalonzo Musyoka and Fred Matiang'i while Luhyaland is coming soon under Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya- the war General. Those who are uncomfortable with Riggy G's current status in opposition politics may reflect on this African saying "He who sleeps with your mother is your father" We are looking to Gachagua and team as our arrow head in the fight for a better governed society. He is taking all the risks to keep at bay wild animals from the homestead. Till he makes an about turn on this focus, he is ours in the trenches.

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