Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has declared that the Mount Kenya region is on course to mobilise at least 7.1 million votes in the 2027 general election to send President William Ruto home, matching the number of votes the Head of State garnered nationally in the 2022 presidential election.

Speaking during a press briefing in Nyahururu, Nyandarua County, after the Democraticy for Citizens Party’s (DCP) emphatic victory in the Ol Kalou by-election, where his candidate, Kamau Ngotho dwarfed the ruling party candidate

Gachagua acknowledged that he and the people of the Mount Kenya region played a significant role in President Ruto’s election in 2022, admitting that the region had made what he described as a “fatal mistake” by contributing nearly half of the votes that propelled the Kenya Kwanza administration into office.

“I want to admit and acknowledge that I, Rigathi Gachagua, and the people of Mount Kenya are, to a large extent, responsible for the mess our country is in. We handed this administration nearly half of the votes that brought it to power. To our fellow Kenyans, we are sorry,” he said.

Ruto’s win in 2022

He said the people of Mount Kenya were fully aware of the consequences of that decision and were now committed to reversing it by delivering at least 7.1 million votes in the next general election.

“We are keenly aware that we made a fatal mistake, and we are all living with its consequences. That said, we are committed to working hard to correct that mistake. William Ruto came to power with 7.1 million votes across the country. Mount Kenya is now working to mobilise and deliver at least 7.1 million votes on its own in the 2027 General Election so that we can wash away the sin we imposed on the Republic.”

According to Gachagua, the region’s target is to match the number of votes President Ruto secured in 2022 as a symbolic way of correcting what he termed the mistake of backing the current administration.

Appeal to other regions

He appealed to Kenyans across the country to join the opposition’s voter mobilisation drive, saying a landslide victory in 2027 would not only remove the current administration from office but also send a strong message to future leaders that political power ultimately rests with the people.

Gachagua further argued that the Ol Kalou by-election had demonstrated that no amount of political influence or state machinery could override the will of the electorate.

Old Kalou by-election

He said that regardless of how far the administration was prepared to go or the strategies it employed, the Ol Kalou outcome had proved that it could neither overpower united citizens nor overturn the democratic choice of voters.

The former deputy president said the opposition would now shift its focus to building a nationwide movement ahead of the 2027 general election, expressing confidence that the momentum witnessed in the Ol Kalou by-election would spread to other parts of the country as the campaign to unseat President Ruto gathers pace.