{"id":2813,"date":"2026-05-03T12:57:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/?p=2813"},"modified":"2026-05-03T12:57:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:57:50","slug":"gachaguas-plan-if-opposition-picks-new-face-to-fight-ruto-in-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/2026\/05\/03\/gachaguas-plan-if-opposition-picks-new-face-to-fight-ruto-in-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"Gachagua&#8217;s Plan If Opposition Picks New Face to Fight Ruto in 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/2026\/04\/28\/will-gachagua-vie-2027-constitutional-crisis-high-stakes-and-the-quest-for-justice-at-milimani-courts\/\">Rigathi Gachagua is talking again<\/a> \u2014 and this time, he&#8217;s making his position on 2027 pretty clear.<\/p>\n<p>The former Deputy President has thrown his weight behind the idea of a united opposition, saying plainly that if the right consensus candidate emerges, he&#8217;s willing to step aside and offer his support. Speaking at a recent political gathering, Gachagua made the case that his own presidential ambitions shouldn&#8217;t become a wedge issue that fractures the opposition at a time when unity matters most.<\/p>\n<p>His message was direct: sit down, have honest conversations, and land on one person who can go toe-to-toe with President Ruto.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My support for the presidency does not mean you can divide the opposition. Let&#8217;s join forces, listen to one another, and decide who will take on Ruto in 2027. I&#8217;ll back him if it&#8217;s impossible for me to be elected under another name,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a notable statement from someone who hasn&#8217;t exactly been shy about his own presidential ambitions. Since his messy split from the Kenya Kwanza government, Gachagua has carved out a real presence in opposition circles \u2014 and he&#8217;s been consistent about one thing: a divided opposition hands Ruto a second term on a silver platter.<\/p>\n<p>Behind the scenes, opposition leaders from <a href=\"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/ruto-fires-back-after-sifunas-shiny-projects-jab-sparks-political-heat\/\">ODM<\/a> and several other parties are already having quiet conversations about coalitions and how power might be shared. Gachagua&#8217;s latest remarks seem designed to nudge those talks forward \u2014 positioning him as a team player rather than a spoiler, even as the competition for the top spot quietly heats up.<\/p>\n<p>Whether opposition leaders actually manage to rally around a single flagbearer remains the big unknown. Political analysts aren&#8217;t holding their breath \u2014 they expect the landscape to stay messy and fluid right up until the campaigns kick into high gear.<\/p>\n<p>As for President Ruto and ODM&#8217;s leadership, neither side has bothered to respond to Gachagua&#8217;s remarks. At least not yet.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rigathi Gachagua is talking again \u2014 and this time, he&#8217;s making his position on 2027 pretty clear. The former Deputy President has thrown his weight behind the idea of a united opposition, saying plainly that if the right consensus candidate emerges, he&#8217;s willing to step aside and offer his support. Speaking at a recent political [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[340,727,728,686],"class_list":["post-2813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-gachagua","tag-2027-election","tag-opposition","tag-ruto"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stateupdate.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/104498.jpg?fit=648%2C438&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc68Dd-Jn","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2819,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions\/2819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}