Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was on Tuesday, December 20, crowned as the Mt Kenya political kingpin.
A faction of the Kikuyu Council of Elders led by the council’s national vice chairman David Muthoga endorsed the former Mathira MP to lead the mountain.
“We are proud of Ruto for picking our son Rigathi as his deputy and we don’t have a choice other than rallying behind him.
“I am employed by the government. Whom am I to go against the government?” Muthoga posed.
Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga expressed optimism that Gachagua will unite the vote-rich region which split in the run-up to the August 9, General Election.
“The mountain must remain united and the only way we will achieve that is by supporting Gachagua who is our main gateway to President William Ruto,” the governor said.
During the August 9, presidential campaigns, the Mt Kenya region split between the East and the West after a faction of leaders pledged their loyalty to Rtd President Uhuru Kenyatta while others defied the former Head of State.
But a few months after he was sworn in, the businessman-cum politician Rigathi Gachagua pledged to unite the mountain before the end of the year.
“We will unite our region’s politics, Mount Kenya so that we speak with one voice,” Gachagua said last month.
In October 2021, the then deputy president William Ruto declared himself as the political supremo of the vote-rich Mt Kenya region.
“I am welcoming them to the mountain, but as they come, let them know that Mt Kenya has its owners. When they were away, I made several tours of the region, we built roads and initiated other development projects,” William Ruto said at Nyahururu DEB Primary in Laikipia County.