Editor's Review

Gachagua revealed he had a phone call with Babu Owino after the MP's concerns over the opposition's future.

Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua has once against dismissed the concern over the late naming of the opposition's presidential candidate to be fielded against President William Ruto in the 2027 general election.

Dismissing the pressure to name the presidential candidate immediately, Gachagua told a section of the Kenyan diaspora that the coalition still has enough time before the election.

Speaking to members of the Kenyan community in Portland City, Oregon, Friday, September 11, Gachagua addressed concerns raised by Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, who has been pushing for the opposition to settle on a single presidential candidate without further delay.

Gachagua revealed he had a phone call with Babu to address the matter.

"I want to assure you, don't worry. I had my younger brother Babu Owino saying, oh we must choose somebody today. If we don't, we are in trouble. I called Babu this morning I said, 'young man, listen to us; we have been around for long. We know Ruto. It's not time. And I told Babu, if we name the candidate, Ruto will be on our case,'" Gachagua said.

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Babu had earlier told Linda Mwananchi aspirants in Nairobi that the opposition risked losing to Ruto if it failed to unite and name a flagbearer soon, warning that waiting until December this year would be too late.

DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua addressing a section of Kenyans in the US.

The MP is aligned with Linda Mwananchi, a movement mobilising against Ruto's re-election.

Responding to that timeline, Gachagua drew a comparison to the 2002 election, when the opposition also united behind a single candidate just months to the election.

He suggested that just as Kibaki's team won after naming him the candidate less than three months to the election, the same would recur in the next year's vote.

"I told Babu that Mwai Kibaki was agreed on as a single presidential candidate on October 14, 2002 when the elections were 27th of December the same year. Two months, 13 days apart. 73 days only. Us we have 300 days, where is the problem? Let us go slowly," Gachagua said.

Gachagua's remarks come against the backdrop of an increasingly crowded opposition field ahead of 2027.

Other figures currently positioning themselves for the race include Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, Peoples Liberation Party (PLP) leader Martha Karua, Democratic Action Party-Kenya (DAP-K) leader Eugene Wamalwa, and former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i, who is fronting his bid under the Jubilee Party banner.

Linda Mwananchi's Edwin Sifuna has also been floated as a possible presidential candidate for the movement, though he has previously moved to address concerns that his candidacy could split the anti-Ruto vote and inadvertently benefit the president's re-election bid.

Gachagua's comments suggest he is not inclined to rush the opposition's nomination process, even as some of his colleagues push for urgency, setting up what could become a lengthier and more contested search for a single candidate to take on Ruto in 2027.