Muriithi snubs DCP, seeks to recapture seat on Ruto-allied party

After months of speculation, Kenya Revenue Authority Chairman and former Laikipia governor, Ndiritu Muriithi, has announced he is not boarding the Democratic Citizens Party (DCP) of former DP, Rigathi Gachagua.

Instead, he has joined the Laikipia governor’s race on a new political outfit, the Reform Party of Kenya (RPK), whose political philosophy he says seeks to avert balkanisation and isolationist politics in Mt Kenya.

And yesterday, the Kenya Revenue Authority chairman was among the most visible leaders who accompanied President William Ruto during his tour of the county. 

Muriithi was Raila Odinga’s presidential campaign chairman in 2022 and landed his current state job courtesy of the so-called broad-based political innovation between Kenya Kwanza and Raila’s ODM.

After Raila’s death last year, speculation has been rife it was a matter of time before he bailed out to Wamunyoro, which is viewed by some as a softer path to getting elected in Mt Kenya region.

In March, Jubilee Party Vice Chair, Jeremiah Kioni and former Nyandarua governor, Francis Kimemia,  visited Gachagua’s Nairobi residence in what was viewed as a peace mission to signal to Nyandarua voters they acknowledged Riggy G was the first among equals in the mountain region.

Isolationist politics

In an interview, Muriithi said he had no intentions of trooping to the famed Wamunyoro village. Neither did he subscribe to what he calls isolationist politics, a euphemism for the “cousins” rallying call associated with DCP leader.

“We must be careful not to be seen to promote isolationist politics as a region based on ethnic mistrust and suspicions against other communities in advancing our political power ambitions” he said.

He said although leaders had a duty to call out what was not going right, they had no right to make things worse than they are for the people.

“If things go wrong as you silently watch, you are as guilty as the wrong doer. Ethnic mobilization in branding some communities as enemies will not bring prosperity and progress but misery.”

The DCP popular wave will be the fourth Muriithi waded against in the last one and half decade.

In the 2013 presidential election, in which Uhuru was a clear frontrunner in the contest to succeed Mwai Kibaki, Muriithi chose to back Musalia Mudavadi presidential ticket against Uhuru.

In 2022, he backed late Raila Odinga’s presidential race against the UDA wave that painted the entire mountain region yellow.

In both instances, he lost to less charismatic and less known candidates largely due to the party ticket he chose. In 2017, he ran as an independent candidate against the then-popular Jubilee popular wave and won.

Responding to the question of this consistency in going against the political impulse of the region at the high risk of ending in grief, he said:

“The purpose of seeking political office is to make things better for the people. The Gema region may boast of being herded into one basket, but there is a bigger danger of being isolated by the rest of the country. This is not a desirable outcome for the region.”

Muriithi’s RPK is the latest outfit to deploy to duel for supremacy with the DCP in Mt Kenya region, where Riggy G has launched an aggressive scotched earth campaign dubbed fagia (wipe out) against political players supportive of President William Ruto’s quest for a second term in office.

RPK joins a raft of other UDA-allied outfits, among them Chama cha Kazi and The Service Party.

These are expected to offer alternative tickets for UDA allied candidates to counter the strong DCP wave threatening to gut their political careers.

In the face of the phenomenal DCP juggernaut in Mt Kenya region, the outfits on President William Ruto’s re-election axis are struggling for visibility and traction on the ground.

Parties allied to the United Opposition one-term axis. among them, the Party of National Unity, Jubilee, People’s Liberation Party and the Democratic Party, also struggle for visibility.

On Wednesday, Jubilee Deputy Party Leader Jeremiah Kioni said on TV that the profile of his presidential candidate, Dr Fred Matiang’i, had declined as DCP and Linda Mwananchi movement’s popularity rose.

Unlike other counties in Mt Kenya region, Laikipia has a unique multi-ethnic demographic profile, which Muriithi calls the face of Kenya.

This is because, although the majority voting bloc in Laikipia East and West constituencies comprises members of the Kikuyu community, the majority voters in Laikipia North are members of the Maa community and often play a decisive bloc swing vote.

Members of Turkana, Kalenjin, Meru and other communities also form significant population minorities and critical swing vote blocs for MCA, parliamentary and gubernatorial elections often mobilized through their religious associations and neighborhood groups.

“This is a cosmopolitan county and all communities must be made to feel they belong. Over-emphasis on one group may make others suspicious,” he said.

What looks like costly mistakes or political blindsides may be calculated long-game brick-by-brick investment in building a profile for a presidential quest in the future for the nephew of late President Mwai Kibaki.

Hoping to harness his roots in Nyeri County, his popular uncle’s political and business networks, he can always point at backing Musalia Mudavadi to his own detriment in 2013, Raila Odinga in 2022, and William  Ruto in 2027 on his nationalist credentials among peers and rivals.

Whether addressing an impromptu political event in some dusty rural township Laikipia, or a policy conference at a high end city hotel, Muriithi talks economics like a university don, explaining complex dynamics in lucid, simple terms easy to follow for non-economists.

This pellucidity hoisted him to the national limelight on December 8, 2021, when he addressed business, political and cultural elite from the mountain region at Safari Park hotel, Nairobi, where he was deployed to reassure a skeptical Gema nation that Raila Odinga was a safe pair of hands to succeed then outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2022 presidential elections.

The jamboree had been organised by the Mt Kenya Foundation, a business lobby.

It  was part of confidence building for a peculiar demographic comprising several generations of voters raised on an ideological diet that Raila did not mean well for them until then President Kenyatta began dropping gingerly hints that he preferred him for successor.

The foundation deployed Muriithi to leverage his high profile as international economic management expert at International Finance Corporation, elected leader, and a close kinsman and nephew to former President Mwai Kibaki, to reassure doubting Thomases that Gema nation’s business and economic interests would be safe under Raila government.

Voter obstinance

To his credit, the then Laikipia governor had been hosting Raila as key note speaker at business caucuses in Nanyuki and Nairobi to talk job creation and champion SME-friendly policies.

Raila would appoint him chairman of his presidential campaign to help articulate his economic policy priorities.

“We name our children after our professions and economic activities. This explains names like Githinji (butcher), Murimi (farmer) and Muriithi (livestock keeper). The total GDP of the 10 Mt Kenya counties is greater than 38 individual African countries. Raila has what it takes to enhance this potential to increase productivity, grow the economy and create more jobs” Muriithi said to loud applause from his Safari Park Hotel audience.

Although the optics on all media outlets about the unprecedented high profile caucus gave the impression the mountain region had finally crossed the Rubicon to embrace Raila, the voters did not follow the elite script.

The Gema nation would overwhelmingly vote for President William Ruto, though Raila still gained the highest number of votes than any other time with over one million voters cast in his favour.

Kenya has few consistent and articulate champions in the public space for small and medium enterprises and innovations for local and regional markets since his days as Assistant Minister for Industrialisation (2008-2013).

As governor, Muriithi was the most vocal champion for the Central Region Economic Bloc to establish a common market of sharing real time business data, remove distribution charges levied on traders by each county, and undertake joint investment promotion based on comparative advantages.