Dallas, Texas — Sarurday, September 26, 2026
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has dropped a political bombshell, predicting that one senior principal in the United Opposition will eventually walk away as leaders negotiate a joint presidential candidate to face President William Ruto in 2027.
Speaking to Kenyans in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday, September 26, Gachagua said the eventual flagbearer would not be decided by individual ambition but by “practicality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness”. “One single presidential candidate will be announced. One person will go away; that one person will go away on his own, and the single presidential candidate will be elected by 75 per cent by the Kenyan vote,” he declared.
Gachagua, who leads the Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP), made it clear he would not be the one walking away. “I can assure you that Riggy-G will be announced as part of the winning team because Riggy-G cannot walk away. He will stick with the arrangement,” he said. He framed his prediction as one born of experience, not prophecy: “I want to prophesy today, not because I am a prophet but out of experience”.
The former DP also fired a warning at Ruto’s camp, dismissing government-backed narratives that the opposition is too fractured to unite. “You know these people of Kasongo; they are calling our people ati, ‘hawa watu hawawezi skizana’… Kasongo and your people, you will be shocked,” he said.
Gachagua’s remarks come amid ongoing tensions within the United Opposition, where leaders including Kalonzo Musyoka, Fred Matiang’i, Martha Karua, and Edwin Sifuna have struggled to agree on a selection formula. Gachagua has previously offered to step aside for a stronger candidate—including expressing willingness to deputise Sifuna—while insisting the process must be guided by electoral arithmetic, not entitlement.
He said removing Ruto in the first round was his “patriotic duty,” adding: “I want today in Dallas, Texas, for history to say that”.
