If a Kikuyu, Luo, Kalenjin, Luhya, Mswahili, and Somali all got hired on the same day at Kenya Ports Authority, Mombasa, and you went back to check on them after 10 years, this is what you would find:
KIKUYU ๐
โ Owns a three-bedroom in Shanzu. Title deed in his name. Family settled, children in a private school nearby. He hardly goes to his village. Mombasa became home!
โ Has two rental units in Kisauni already generating income. A matatu on the Likoni route with a trusted tout managing it.
โ Drives a 1300cc EFI. Clean. Paid for in cash.
โ His idea of a night out is meeting one old friend at a local leaking joint, splitting a quarter kilo of nyama choma, and arguing over land prices in Ruiru over two cold Tuskers.
โ He is already planning to quit KPA.
LUO ๐
โ Lives in a five-bedroom house in Nyali. Rent is 85,000 a month. The sitting room has a chandelier.
โ Drives a 4000cc V8 on a loan that still has six years to run. The car turns heads. That is the point.
โ No land. No rentals. Has a savings account he has never saved in.
โ Is the Chairman of the KPA Workers Union. Has called eleven strikes in ten years. Nine of them were about Kikuyus being promoted unfairly. He sings TUTAM in meetings!
โ His Friday night involves ten friends, a table full of beers, music that makes conversation impossible, and a very loud argument about how Raila would have been the greatest president Africa ever produced.
โ Genuinely believes the Kikuyu guy in accounts is stealing. Has no evidence. Does not need any. But he believes they were born thieves!
KALENJIN ๐
โ Family is in Kericho. He is in Mombasa. This arrangement makes complete sense to him.
โ His 1300cc car is also in Kericho. He takes buses.
โ Has quietly bought 37 acres near Londiani. Does not talk about it.
โ Drinks beer slowly, alone or with one or two clansmen, in a corner of a quiet bar. The conversation is mostly about home. He is already mentally back in the Rift.
โ Regularly wonders why they built the port in Mombasa and not somewhere more sensible, like Kericho.
LUHYA ๐ต
โ Has one wife in Bungoma and one wife in Mombasa. Both know about each other. Neither is happy. He manages.
โ Has been waiting seven years for another Luhya to become MD so things can finally go his way. There have been two Luhya MDs. Neither remembered him.
โ No savings. No land. But he knows every Lingala song released between 2015 and today, and there is always a sweet sixteen somewhere who thinks he looks important.
โ Looks at the Kikuyu's rental houses with genuine admiration and zero plan to replicate them.
โ His budget does not survive the third week of any month.
MSWAHILI ๐
โ Has never lived anywhere else. His grandfather worked at the port. His father worked at the port. He works at the port. This is simply how things are done.
โ Lives in the family house in Mvita, Old Town. The house was built in 1962. He sees no reason to move.
โ Does not hustle. Does not plan. Believes strongly that riziki inatoka kwa Mungu and that rushing is a sign of poor upbringing.
โ Has a small shop downstairs run by his wife. The shop has been open since 1987. The stock has not changed much since then either.
โ Genuinely confused why the Kikuyu is always running somewhere. Kwani where is he going?
โ Spends evenings at the baraza with elders drinking kahawa chungu and discussing how Mombasa was better before everyone else arrived.
โ Still waiting for his cousin's friend's brother to finalize paperwork on a piece of land in Likoni. The cousin says it is almost ready. It has been almost ready for four years.
SOMALI ๐ช
โ Was hired at KPA but stopped showing up after three months. Nobody is quite sure when he left or how. But everyone suspects he gets paid.
โ Currently owns a money transfer business, a wholesale shop in Eastleigh, a small logistics company operating between Mombasa and Garissa, and a share in a fuel depot.
โ Drives a clean Prado. Cash.
@kakaiisaac@paulinenjoroge The other blacks are now 'woke'. SA's Ramaphosa turned down the invitation and Rotu was picked as an option. The singular qualification for a black invitee is one who can kiss a$$
@Adele_lide Same guy who opposed the 2010 constitute thereby in his frame of mind denying the northern Kenya region the billions of shillings it has received so far from devolution for the development he's whipping emotions with. Omba kura polepole nanii. Wantam
@Adele_lide No loan yes. But yet again no capitation for schools, no SHA, raped payslips, skyrocketing COL, all for this road; the only public friendly project since 2022. SMH
@WilliamsRuto Political opportunists are none other than yourself Mr. President. In 2022 during a global crisis of the Ukraine war you dismissed the situation for political clout. Promised heaven then, now delivering hell. Karma knocks, with a similar global crisis of the Iran war. ST*U
Ruto does not need Uhuru Kenyatta back in the picture because he expects Kikuyus to suddenly run back to him. That ground has largely shifted, and even the regime knows it. The real target is not Kikuyus. The real target is the rest of Kenya.
Ruto wants other communities to look at Mt Kenya politics and say, โLook at how Kikuyus are against him.โ He wants to create the impression that his biggest problem is not bad leadership, corruption, overtaxation, police brutality, abductions, broken promises or economic pain, but a coordinated Kikuyu rebellion led by the old regime.
That is why Uhuru is so useful to him.
Rigathi Gachagua alone cannot give Ruto that national fear card. After the fallout, Rigathi mostly represents betrayal, impeachment and Mt Kenya anger against Ruto. He is now a reminder that Ruto fell out with the same people who helped carry him to power.
Uhuru is different because Uhuru carries a much bigger political image. He can be packaged as dynasty, handshake, deep state, old regime, state capture and the people who allegedly never accepted Rutoโs presidency. Once Uhuru is pushed back to the centre of the conversation, Ruto can stop defending his record and start warning the rest of Kenya that โtheyโ are coming back.
And this is where Rigathi becomes very interesting.
Every time Rigathi loudly defends Uhuru, praises Uhuru or appears to politically rehabilitate Uhuru, he helps Ruto build the exact picture Ruto wants the rest of the country to see. He helps sell the image that Uhuru and the Mt Kenya establishment are regrouping against Ruto ahead of 2027.
That is why this thing may not be innocent.
Rigathi resurrecting Uhuru politically may look like Mt Kenya unity on the surface, but it also serves Rutoโs national strategy perfectly. It helps Ruto tell other tribes that the Kikuyu political class is ganging up against him, so they must compensate for the votes he has lost in Mt Kenya.
In short, Ruto may have accepted that he has lost a huge part of Mt Kenya, but he can still use Mt Kenya anger to scare other regions into his corner.
That is the game.
Make Uhuru look active again. Make Rigathi look like he is returning Mt Kenya to Uhuru. Make the rest of Kenya fear a Kikuyu political comeback. Then ask them to rescue Ruto from the so-called old regime.
So the question is no longer whether Rigathi is defending Uhuru.
The question is why Rigathiโs defence of Uhuru fits so neatly into Rutoโs 2027 script.