A senior official within President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance has accused operatives from the same party of mounting a covert effort to destabilise rival outfit DCP in Kirinyaga County ahead of a high-profile gubernatorial contest.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, speaking in unusually candid terms, alleged that UDA agents were working to infiltrate the Democracy for Citizens Party’s structures in Kirinyaga with the aim of weakening its candidate before polling day. The accusation drew immediate attention, given that Cherargei is himself a prominent UDA legislator and a vocal supporter of the president.
The Kirinyaga gubernatorial race has attracted considerable political interest, partly because the county sits within the broader Mount Kenya region — territory President Ruto has been working to consolidate ahead of his anticipated 2027 re-election campaign. DCP, which has recruited several politicians closely associated with former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s networks, has positioned itself as a serious contender in the region.
Cherargei’s remarks raised questions about whether UDA’s Kirinyaga strategy involves openly competing against DCP or seeking to neutralise it from within. Infiltration tactics — encouraging defections or funding internal dissent — have precedent in Kenyan electoral politics and are typically deployed to fracture a rival’s candidate selection process.
Political analysts noted that if the allegations are accurate, they would reflect a deeper anxiety within Kenya Kwanza about DCP’s growing organisational capacity in Central Kenya. The party has been recruiting candidates with established local networks across multiple counties, making it a credible threat to UDA’s dominance in a region that delivered a substantial share of Ruto’s 2022 votes.
DCP officials had not issued a formal response at the time of publication, though the allegation is expected to dominate political discourse in Kirinyaga in the weeks ahead.
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