Strip away the diplomatic language and here is what Karua, Muturi, Munya, and Kivuti actually want from Gachagua. They want him to tour Mt Kenya, fill their rallies, lend them his crowd pull, then hand the microphone back so the votes he generated land in PLP, DP, PNU, and Jubilee instead of DCP. Popularity by proxy. Sweat equity they did not put in.
Munya’s ask is the clearest example. He wants Gachagua to zone Meru for him, clear the field, hand him the governorship. But DCP already has a candidate in that race, Linturi, the party’s own national organising secretary, declared and campaigning. Munya is not asking Gachagua for a favour.
He is asking Gachagua to sabotage his own party from the inside to make room for someone else’s. The same math applies in Embu and Kirinyaga, DCP has people on the ground there too. Zoning is not a neutral request. It is asking Gachagua to disarm himself county by county while everyone else keeps their weapons loaded.
Here is the uncomfortable truth those party leaders will not say out loud. Gachagua did not inherit Mt Kenya’s attention. He earned it, Ol Kalou, the Infotrak numbers, the tour that kept filling churches and grounds while their own parties stayed quiet. DCP polling at 33 percent in Central against UDA’s 9 and ODM’s 6 did not happen because Gachagua asked nicely. It happened because he showed up and they did not.
My message to the so called party leaders is simple. Popularise your own parties. Give Mt Kenya people an actual reason to join PLP, DP, PNU, or Jubilee beyond your name on the letterhead. Gachagua is not blocking you from doing that. He is just the only one currently doing it.
written by Eric Kigara, Political Communication Analyst
