Editor's Review

Kioni said ethnic politics would stifle the efforts to challenge Ruto out of power.

Jubilee secretary general Jeremiah Kioni has seemed to disapprove of the former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua's style of politics.

Gachagua has lately been traversing the Mt Kenya region, decampaigning President William Ruto while insisting that the region's numerical strength is enough to send Ruto out of office in 2027.

The Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) party leader argued that Mt Kenya has close to ten million votes, which, if mobilised well, the region alone will unseat the president.

However, the Jubilee secretary general discouraged such a kind of talk, saying it was portraying Mt Kenya as a comandeering region against other parts of the country.

Former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua addressing his supporters in Mt Kenya.

According to Kioni, profiling Mt Kenya as the only strong region politically could pit it against other regions, hence stifling national unity. 

He suggested that lamping Mt Kenya as a voting bloc is akin to ethnic mobilisation, adding that all parts of the country ought to come together without looking down on each other in the mission to unseat Ruto.

"The entitlement of my kinsmen will be this country’s undoing. It cannot always be your way or the highway. Whether we know it or not, this narrative is breeding resentment, stifling unity, and choking our national fabric. We must break free from ethnic politics before it breaks us," Kioni said.

Kioni's party has endorsed former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i for presidency in 2027.

Recently, Gachagua listed the Jubilee party under former president Uhuru Kenyatta among the parties he observed were being advanced in Mt Kenya to divide the region in favour of Ruto.

The former deputy president wants his DCP party to dominate the region, having hinted at vying for the presidency in the next general election.