Earlier this week, Calvince Okoth, popularly known as Gaucho and the former Bunge la Mwananchi president, was appointed to the Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital board by the Nairobi County government for a three-year term beginning April 16, 2026.
The appointment immediately sparked a heated public debate about whether someone with no formal education beyond primary school has any business serving on the oversight board of a Level 5 referral hospital that serves over 2.25 million people and treats more than 2,000 patients every day.
For Gaucho’s supporters, however, the appointment is about something the hospital’s more formally educated board members may struggle to offer — a lived, firsthand understanding of what it truly means to be poor and entirely dependent on a public hospital.
Having grown up in the informal settlements of Korogocho and Dandora, Gaucho was recruited into political goonism by the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, making a living as Odinga’s enforcer-in-chief for the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
With the death of Raila Odinga last year, Gaucho found himself politically orphaned—but his reputation as a street-level mobiliser quickly attracted the attention of Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja and President William Ruto.
Up until his board appointment, Gaucho had been working closely with both Ruto and Sakaja, playing a key role in maintaining order on the ground, particularly in the volatile aftermath of the June 2024 Gen Z protests.
Now, in a clip that is rapidly going viral, Gaucho has wasted no time making his position clear—warning anyone who insults President Ruto to stay away from Mama Lucy Hospital.
“Anyone insulting Ruto will not be treated at Mama Lucy Hospital,” Gaucho declared bluntly.
Sources also claim that part of the reason Gaucho was brought onto the board was his role in leading verbal attacks against members of the Kikuyu community who have openly opposed both Ruto’s re-election bid and Sakaja’s continued hold on the Nairobi governorship.
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