The battle for political control of the Mt Kenya region is entering a new phase, with former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua facing an increasingly assertive Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, even as other regional leaders resist attempts to place the mountain under the control of any single politician.
Once largely a three-way contest involving Mr Gachagua, President William Ruto and former President Uhuru Kenyatta, the struggle has expanded to include Mr Nyoro and opposition figures such as Peter Munya (PNU), Justin Muturi (DP), Lenny Kivuti (DEP), Martha Karua (PLP) and Jimi Wanjigi (Safina).
At the centre of the latest confrontation is Mr Nyoro, leader of the People’s Party of Kenya (PPK), who has emerged as one of the most vocal challengers to Mr Gachagua’s attempt to position himself as the region’s principal political voice ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The exchange escalated after Mr Gachagua appeared to accuse an unnamed youthful Mt Kenya politician of receiving Sh200 million from President Ruto to fragment the region politically.
Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) leader and former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
“It will not work. In Mt Kenya West, he has looked for a small wheelbarrow, a small party. It’s a waste of time,” Mr Gachagua said in the US, remarks widely interpreted as referring to Mr Nyoro.
Mr Nyoro responded by challenging the former Deputy President to confront him directly rather than using coded language or unleashing political allies on him.
“Next time you want to insult Ndindi Nyoro, stop sending people or using coded language; mention me by name,” he said.
Mr Nyoro has also rejected the allegation that he received Sh200 million to undermine the opposition campaign in Mt Kenya, with no independent evidence presented to substantiate the claim.
Mr Nyoro is building his own political vehicle through PPK and increasingly presenting himself as an independent player in the region.
Both men, on the surface, speak the same political language: they want President Ruto defeated in 2027 and an opposition administration installed.
Yet their supporters have increasingly been engaged in a bitter ground fight, with Mr Gachagua’s camp portraying Mr Nyoro as a government project, while his opponents accuse the former deputy president of seeking to bully rivals into submission.
The clash has therefore raised questions about whether Mt Kenya will enter the 2027 contest behind one political centre or with several competing formations.
Mr Gachagua is attempting to consolidate the political space created by the collapse of his alliance with President Ruto. His argument has been that Mt Kenya overwhelmingly supported Dr Ruto in 2022 but has not received the political dividends it expected.
He has consequently travelled extensively across the region, portraying himself as the politician capable of reorganising the mountain into a formidable bargaining bloc ahead of 2027.
Mr Gachagua has not publicly declared political war on Mr Kenyatta and has repeatedly indicated that he intends to consult the former President.
In June, he said that after completing a 45-day consultation exercise at his Wamunyoro home, he would take the views collected from the region to Mr Kenyatta so that the two could “compare notes”.
Mr Kenyatta, however, has not endorsed Mr Gachagua’s political project, while Jubilee has equally not surrendered Mt Kenya’s political space to the former deputy president.
“They share opposition to Ruto, but they do not necessarily share the same political interests. Uhuru retains extensive political networks built during his decade in State House and remains Jubilee Party leader and chairman of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Council,” says political analyst Dismas Mokua.
Dr Ruto has repeatedly accused his predecessor of financing politicians opposed to his 2027 re-election bid.
“You know their sponsor and how I assisted him while in office… now he is sponsoring his political puppets against me, but I will trounce them by a landslide margin,” the President said.
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro addressing journalists at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, on August 17, 2026.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
But Mr Kenyatta has rejected attempts to portray him as an opposition sponsor, saying Kenyans would ultimately decide who should lead the country.
The relationship between Mr Gachagua and Mr Kenyatta was further tested by controversy surrounding President Ruto’s proposed Beyond Vision 2030 initiative.
Mr Gachagua cautioned Mr Kenyatta against accepting any position associated with the initiative after suggestions that the former President could be involved in leading its secretariat.
“Those trying to do that, whoever they are, are just making desperate political attempts,” Mr Kioni said.
For Mr Gachagua, keeping Mr Kenyatta outside the Ruto camp is politically important. But the former President’s independence also matters to Jubilee.
The irony, political analysts say, is that the political relationship between the two men has been transformed by events.
In 2022, Mr Gachagua and his allies were among Mr Kenyatta’s fiercest critics, accusing him of abandoning Mt Kenya after he chose to work with the late ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Dr Ruto successfully exploited that resentment, presenting himself as the leader who would restore Mt Kenya to the centre of government.
Read: Nyoro’s 2027 gambit: National tours, new party and opposition pact
Four years later, the script has changed dramatically. Dr Ruto is facing disaffection in parts of the region, while Mr Gachagua is attempting to occupy the space created by the breakdown of their alliance.
Yet the former deputy president is encountering resistance not only from the Ruto camp and Mr Nyoro, but also from politicians who reject the idea that any individual can claim ownership of the mountain.
Mr Munya has similarly criticised Mr Gachagua’s approach and urged him to respect other opposition leaders and political parties.
Mr Muturi and Mr Kivuti have also opposed attempts to impose political zoning or designate particular leaders as the region’s sole representatives.
Their resistance presents a direct challenge to Mr Gachagua’s strategy. His supporters argue that a united Mt Kenya is necessary if the region is to regain bargaining power after 2027. His critics, however, accuse him of trying to build a political centre around himself.
The Kiharu MP has recognised Mr Gachagua’s influence in Mt Kenya but has continued to popularise PPK rather than joining the former deputy president’s DCP. His decision could leave the region with several competing political centres rather than one.
Both camps have increasingly mobilised supporters against each other. Mr Gachagua’s allies, including Kiambu Senator Karungo Thang’wa and Gatanga MP Edward Muriu, have been active in the political contest against Mr Nyoro, while the Kiharu MP has used media platforms to fight off accusations that he is a government mole.
Political analyst Mixson Warui says Mr Nyoro’s emergence has reset the battle lines within Mt Kenya.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
“We used to have Gachagua, President Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta camps and they operated on definable battle lines. Come Mr Nyoro and most combatants in Mr Kenyatta camp have embraced Mr Nyoro while those in Mr Gachagua and President Ruto appear to have picked the Kiharu man as a common enemy,” he said.
“President Ruto camp appear to be fighting Mr Nyoro so as to lock him out beyond Mt Kenya boundaries hence piling pressure on Mr Gachagua to feel threatened,” he said.
Former United Alternative Opposition Government spokesman Mukhisa Kituyi says the conflict must be viewed through both national and regional lenses.
“To understand the war, you must look at it from two lenses—national and regional,” Dr Kituyi said.
On the national front, he said, Mr Nyoro is “opposition per excellence”, but locally he has entered a territory that was already politically mobilised.
Laikipia Senator John Kinyua, however, says the contest is ultimately about the region’s bargaining strategy.
“In the Mountain, we as DCP want to drive the agenda of one party, one Mountain and one leader so as to reach the bargaining table with maximum solidity and with maximum unified voice,” he said.
He pointed to the July 17, 2026, Ol Kalou by-election victory, which he said was being used as a measure of the region’s political mood after DCP candidate Sammy Waweru Ngotho won 85 per cent of the vote.
“I am not here to divide votes, I am here to help accelerate the momentum of the opposition as well as gather those pockets in Mt Kenya yet to embrace the opposition and, more important, venture countrywide in search of opposition support,” he said.
But political scientist John Okumu sees the Gachagua-Nyoro confrontation through another lens: generational change.
Mr Nyoro is 40 while Mr Gachagua is 61, he notes, arguing that the contest could partly reflect the emergence of a younger generation seeking space in Mt Kenya politics.
Mr Gachagua’s political future also adds complexity. Mr Okumu points to his impeachment in October 2024 and the possibility of restrictions on his eligibility to hold public office, saying Mr Nyoro’s emergence can be viewed against a historical pattern in which younger politicians emerge when established leaders face political or legal obstacles.
Another theory is that Mr Nyoro, knowingly or otherwise, is disrupting a broader strategy Mr Gachagua has been quietly building.
Political scientist Gasper Odhiambo argues that Mr Gachagua’s approach may be less about securing the presidency personally and more about controlling the numbers that determine political bargaining.
“Interpretively, Mr Gachagua intends to use the DCP to win controlling numbers in the National Assembly, the Senate and in the County Assemblies.
He appears to value those principals who have superior voting numbers,” he said.
According to Mr Odhiambo, such a strategy would give Mt Kenya considerable leverage in deciding who gets the presidency while simultaneously retaining influence in Parliament and the devolved units.
That possibility could explain the intensity of the contest. Control of the region’s political machinery would translate into considerable bargaining power in any post-election arrangement.
The risk, however, is that the battle could fragment the mountain.
President William Ruto during a thanksgiving service in South Horr, Samburu County on September 6, 2026.
Photo credit: PCS
Mr Warui warns that the conflict could split Mt Kenya and weaken its bargaining position while potentially giving Dr Ruto a clearer path to re-election.
The President’s 2022 victory depended heavily on Mt Kenya support, making the region’s political direction central to the 2027 contest.
For Mr Gachagua, the challenge is therefore not simply Mr Nyoro. Mr Kenyatta retains networks and influence; Ms Karua, Mr Munya, Mr Muturi and Mr Kivuti reject regional political ownership; while Dr Matiang’i is seeking to rebuild Jubilee as a national vehicle, creating another potential political home for voters opposed to Dr Ruto but unwilling to rally behind Mr Gachagua.
The battle, pundits say, is consequently larger than the rivalry between two politicians.
On one side, they note, it is an attempt to consolidate Mt Kenya behind a recognisable political leadership. On the other are politicians determined to preserve multiple centres of power and resist zoning.
And somewhere between them sits Mr Kenyatta, whose influence neither side can comfortably ignore.
“The paradox is striking. Gachagua and Uhuru may share an interest in weakening Ruto’s hold on Mt Kenya, but they are not necessarily fighting the same post-Ruto battle and the same applies to Nyoro, Karua, Munya, Muturi and Kivuti,” says advocate Chris Omore.
Ultimately, the contest, he says, is not merely about defeating President Ruto in 2027.
“It is about who inherits Mt Kenya’s political space when his influence recedes — and whether that space will belong to one leader, one party or an increasingly fragmented field of political actors.”
As Kikuyu Council of Elders chairman Wachira Kiago puts it, Mt Kenya voters have historically resisted politicians they believe are acting against the community’s collective interests.
“This is a voting bloc known to have no favourites when it suspects that there are efforts to split it for selfish gains,” he said.
