Jubilee Party Deputy Party Leader Jeremiah Kioni has denied a political rift with former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, saying he has no reason to fight the man he sees as being on the same political side because there is no animosity.

During a media interview with a local radio station on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, Kioni recalled the change in political dynamics in Kenya, saying that those who had been on the other side of the political divide in the Jubilee administration now find themselves on the same side of the fence, criticising the current government.

“We have come a long way, and in that time, those who were in government, including Mheshimiwa Riggy G, we were fighting them, and they were fighting us. Now they are with us. I want to say it here on air that I cannot be the one fighting those that are on our side, including Riggy G, Kalonzo Musyoka, Matiang’i, Wamalwa and the rest. We have a course for those who believe the fact that this government has failed,” Kioni said.

Jubilee and DCP Mount Kenya control the rivalry.

The Jubilee Party has been trying to regain the ground it has lost in the territory it had once dominated. Kioni has repeatedly said that the party’s influence in Mount Kenya has waned and that it has to put up new efforts to regain its influence and political relevance.

In the face of these competing interests, Kioni has said that his only concern is forming alliances and not divisions. He said that he was convinced that several leaders, among them Kalonzo Musyoka, Fred Matiang’i and Eugene Wamalwa, shared the worry about the country’s governance trajectory.

Gachagua, meanwhile, has been proactively developing his political base with the Democracy for the Citizens party (DCP), especially in the Mount Kenya region, as Kioni has been working to stabilise and revive the influence of the Jubilee Party, which was Kenya’s ruling party and the former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party.

His remarks reflect a larger political shift in Kenya as factions once opposed to the government now begin to converge in opposition to the current government while also championing their own party and regional agendas.