Gloria Orwoba calls for appreciation of Gachagua’s contribution in Mbeere North by-election campaign
By Mabonga Makhanu, November 29, 2025Former nominated senator Gloria Orwoba has called for appreciation of the efforts made by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in the campaigns he conducted in Mbeere North for Democratic candidate Newton Karish.
While speaking during an interview on a local podcast on Saturday, November 29, 2025, she stated that Gachagua’s efforts in Mbeere North should not go unrecognised despite his candidate losing in the mini-polls.
She went ahead to state that with one week left to the polls, the former DP went out of his way to campaign for a candidate who was not a member of his Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP), to the point that most people thought Newton Karish belonged to his party.
The early mornings that Gachagua spent going house to house, Orwoba said, showed that if there was a medal to be given, then it should have been given to Gachagua.
“If there is a person who should be thanked hands down in the Mbeere by-elections, it’s Gachagua, because he really went out of his way to campaign for the DP candidate until people forgot that Karish belongs to his party, DCP,” Orwoba said.
She said that whatever Gachagua did was in the spirit of a united opposition, adding that if the same rallying call were applied to all united opposition principals and each one was willing to go out of their way to support candidates from other parties within the coalition, then they would succeed.
“That is what united opposition is about; we campaign for each other to strengthen the coalition,” he added.
Karish loss
On Karish’s loss, she said they did not lose in the by-elections, since the exercise was marred by violence and last-minute voter manipulation that secured a win for United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate Leonard Wamuthende, who won by 400 votes.
She said the state went out of its way to deploy all its machinery for a simple by-election, with some areas experiencing voter bribery and violence. She blamed Embu Governor Cecily Mbarire and Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku for being behind this.