Businessman and Safina Party leader Jimi Wanjigi has warned the opposition that removing President William Ruto from power in 2027 will not be easy.

Speaking during a media interview, Wanjigi argued that the first mistake the opposition can make is to imagine that any candidate can be placed before Kenyans and automatically defeat Ruto.

Jimi Wanjigi sends caution

Wanjigi said the opposition may agree that Ruto has failed, but that alone is not enough to defeat him at the ballot.

“To achieve the removal of William Ruto, we must also agree on the method because he is also a game player. He is also a game master.

“What is the method? Because if we don’t get that right, even that task we won’t succeed,” Wanjigi said.

Wanjigi said Ruto’s biggest failure is not merely political, but moral and institutional.

He argued that a serious Head of State must keep promises, respect the law and explain openly to citizens whenever government commitments cannot be fulfilled.

“If you have a Head of State that is very firm about doing good, honouring their words, sticking to the law, sticking to what they are saying and, if they are unable, coming back to explain to Kenyans, that would cascade downwards. And there, William Ruto has failed,” he said.

According to Wanjigi, that failure is the reason opposition forces are united around one broad political conclusion: Ruto must be removed from office.

“That is why we are united in the opposition that William Ruto must go,” he said.

His remarks place him among politicians who believe the 2027 contest should not be treated as an ordinary election, but as a referendum on Ruto’s leadership, credibility and style of rule.

Opposition method

However, Wanjigi’s harder message was directed at the opposition itself.

He warned that anger against Ruto will not automatically translate into victory.

In his view, the opposition must first answer two political questions: who can defeat Ruto, and what governing agenda can convince Kenyans after Ruto.

“Then what happens after that for the people of Kenya? These legacy politicians have failed that test over time. They must also see that we are in different times. These are not the same times,” Wanjigi said.

That statement is politically loaded.

Wanjigi is essentially telling the opposition that the anti-Ruto wave needs more than slogans, rallies and elite unity.

It needs a credible method, a disciplined candidate, a believable coalition and a post-Ruto agenda strong enough to win public trust.

Without that, he appears to argue, the opposition could repeat the old mistake of uniting against a sitting president without convincing enough voters what comes next.

Ruto game

Wanjigi’s description of Ruto as a “game master” is significant.

It recognises what many opposition leaders often avoid saying openly: Ruto is not an accidental politician.

He built his path to the State House through organisation, messaging, regional deals, voter mobilisation and a clear class-based campaign around the hustler narrative.

That is why Wanjigi warned that defeating him requires more than simply naming a candidate.

“To imagine you can put anyone there to defeat Ruto is a huge lie. He is also a political game player, and we know numbers in this country and how numbers are played,” he said.

The warning cuts directly into the current opposition debate, where several names continue to be floated as possible presidential candidates.

Wanjigi’s point is blunt: popularity in rallies is not the same as national electability. Social media excitement is not the same as votes. Political anger is not the same as an election machine.

Question of numbers

Kenyan presidential elections are won through numbers, regional consolidation, turnout and coalition discipline.

Ruto understands that better than most of his rivals.

In 2022, he defeated an opposition formation that had state sympathy, established parties and veteran politicians. That victory remains the clearest proof that he knows how to play Kenya’s political board.

Wanjigi is now warning that unless the opposition studies that board properly, it may walk into 2027 emotionally charged but strategically weak.

The opposition, in his framing, must build a two-pronged strategy: first, a method for removing Ruto; second, a hope agenda that can govern the whole country after victory.

“How do you govern the entire country into a hope agenda and buy it? It is going to be two-pronged,” he said.o