Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara has come out strongly to defend Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua, insisting that his recent remarks about the 2027 general election have been misunderstood and deliberately taken out of context.

Addressing a congregation at Christ’s Joy Christian Church in Gatanga, Murang’a County, on May 18, 2025, Kihara didn’t hold back as she challenged Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen. She accused Murkomen of twisting Gachagua’s message, trying to portray him as someone inciting unrest ahead of the crucial polls.

“You cannot claim to seek unity with Gachagua when you are the very person working to push him out of national politics. What Gachagua said was clear: if the 2027 elections are manipulated, Kenya will change, and this warning is specifically aimed at Minister Murkomen,” she declared firmly.

Kihara made it clear that Gachagua’s words were not a threat but a serious and necessary warning against the dangers of rigging the upcoming election. She criticized those who turned this caution into accusations of incitement, calling such behavior dishonest and politically reckless.

According to Kihara, Gachagua’s intention was to speak candidly to the Kenya Kwanza administration, shattering any illusion they might have had about controlling the election outcome. “He never said unrest would follow if he lost the election; he only warned that rigged polls would have serious consequences for the country.”

Kihara also took aim at President William Ruto’s administration, accusing them of obsessing over Gachagua and his new political party at the expense of focusing on more pressing national issues. She questioned whether the government had any other priorities.

She pointed out that despite having their own party, Ruto and his close allies seem fixated on talking about Gachagua and his political moves. “There are individuals who keep moving around promoting our party because ever since it was launched, the other side has had nothing else to speak about. They don’t even talk about their own party anymore; now all they talk about is our party.”

Kihara went further to warn President Ruto against pushing what she called a tribalist narrative that tries to single out Gachagua as the source of ethnic division. She argued that isolating Gachagua politically sends a strong message that the president no longer values the Kikuyu community’s voice.

Accusing Ruto of being out of touch with public sentiment, Kihara labeled him the most tribal-minded leader Kenya has ever seen.

“There is something I want to tell President Ruto. When you go around telling Kenyans that your role is to unite the country, excluding Rigathi Gachagua means you have no regard whatsoever for the Kikuyu people. You cannot tell us that you are uniting Kenyans, yet you are the very one who sent Gachagua away,” she concluded.