Gachagua pledges to back single opposition candidate, predicts one leader will break ranks before 2027

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has pledged to support another opposition presidential candidate unconditionally if he is not selected to challenge President William Ruto in 2027, as he stepped up pressure on fellow opposition leaders to make the same public commitment.

Speaking to Kenyans in Dallas, Texas, during his continuing tour of the United States, the Democracy for Citizens Party leader said opposition leaders had agreed on the need to field a single presidential candidate against Ruto.

Gachagua, who has himself declared presidential ambitions, said he was prepared to sacrifice his candidature if opposition negotiations produce another candidate considered better placed under whatever selection formula the leaders eventually adopt.

“If it's not me, I'll support whoever it is unconditionally,” Gachagua told the gathering, before challenging other opposition figures to give Kenyans a similar assurance. Pasted text

His comments come amid continuing questions over whether opposition leaders with competing presidential ambitions can agree on a single candidate before the August 2027 General Election.

Gachagua said the eventual decision should be based on what he described as the most practical, efficient and cost-effective arrangement rather than previous alliances or personal considerations. Pasted text

Current reporting from Dallas confirms that Gachagua said he expects the opposition to settle on one candidate but predicted that one principal would eventually walk away from the arrangement.

‘One person will go away’

Gachagua compared the emerging opposition negotiations with the political realignment that preceded Kenya's 2002 General Election, when opposition leaders eventually rallied behind Mwai Kibaki against then-KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.

He recalled serving as Kenyatta's personal assistant at the time and said he had advised him that the political environment made victory difficult after the opposition united.

Drawing on that experience, Gachagua predicted that the current opposition would similarly settle on a single candidate, although one leader would refuse to participate in the final arrangement.

“One single presidential candidate will be announced. One person will go away,” he said. Pasted text

He did not identify the opposition figure he believes will break ranks.

Gachagua, however, said he did not expect to be that person and predicted that he would remain part of the eventual opposition alliance even if he was not its presidential candidate. Pasted text

The opposition currently contains several politicians with presidential ambitions, making the process of selecting one flagbearer potentially contentious.

Gachagua acknowledged some of those tensions, saying statements by supporters of individual candidates were creating doubts about whether all camps would accept the final choice.

He urged opposition leaders to restrain supporters from suggesting they would abandon the alliance if their preferred candidate is not selected. Pasted text

Gachagua makes sweeping victory claims

The former deputy president went considerably further in predicting the scale of support he believes a united opposition could attract.

He initially told the Dallas audience that the opposition wanted to defeat Ruto by 80 per cent and later predicted that a single candidate could receive more than 75 per cent of the national vote. Pasted text Pasted text

Those figures represent Gachagua's political projections rather than independently established forecasts.

He also claimed a “scientific poll” conducted the previous month put Ruto's support at 17 per cent. The transcript does not identify the pollster, methodology, sample size, fieldwork dates or population surveyed, meaning the figure cannot be independently assessed from the information he provided. Pasted text

Gachagua's prediction of a 75 per cent opposition victory has also been reported separately following the Dallas meeting.

Attacks Ruto over New York delegation

Gachagua also turned his attention to President Ruto's trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

He accused the government of taking an unnecessarily large delegation to New York at taxpayers' expense, claiming more than 500 people travelled for the meetings.

“Sheer wastage of public resources,” Gachagua said. Pasted text

Citizen Digital separately reported the accusation, including Gachagua's claim that more than 500 people accompanied Ruto.

The transcript does not provide documentary evidence establishing the size or total cost of the delegation, so those figures should be treated as Gachagua's claims unless confirmed through official government records.

Says opposition will protect its vote

Gachagua also sought to reassure supporters concerned about the integrity of the 2027 election, arguing that changes in Kenya's electoral system make it difficult to manipulate presidential results after votes have been counted at polling stations.

His remarks followed a significant High Court judgment this week on presidential tallying.

Justice Gregory Mutai upheld the constitutionality of national tallying and verification by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission but barred the commission from changing results already declared and certified at constituency level.

The court held that national verification involves checking and aggregating constituency figures rather than altering them.

Gachagua cited the ruling as strengthening safeguards around presidential results. Pasted text

However, his broader assertion that a Kenyan general election cannot be stolen is a political assessment rather than a legal guarantee.

The High Court preserved the national tallying centre while requiring constituency results to remain the primary basis for national aggregation. It also directed that commissioners, candidate agents and observers have access to the underlying data during national tallying and that discrepancies between electronic and physical records be documented.

2027 opposition unity faces its real test

Gachagua's Dallas speech places the question of opposition unity increasingly at the centre of the emerging 2027 contest.

His public promise to support another candidate removes one potential condition from his own position, but it does not establish that every other opposition presidential aspirant has made the same commitment.

Gachagua acknowledged that uncertainty himself, saying some opposition figures remained “a little bit slippery” when it came to publicly promising to support whoever eventually emerges. Pasted text

The harder questions therefore remain unresolved: how the opposition candidate will be chosen, when that decision will be made and whether all presidential aspirants will accept the outcome.

For now, Gachagua's message from Dallas is that he wants that process to produce one candidate — even if that candidate is not him.