Two weeks ago, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua stood before a crowd in Kandara, Murang’a County, and issued a stark warning to the principals of the united opposition. He told them to watch their backs, alleging that President William Ruto had quietly planted moles within their ranks, individuals who wave the opposition flag by day and dial State House operatives by night, leaking secrets and sabotaging the movement from within.
Many brushed it off at the time. Today, Gachagua is looking less like a politician and more like a prophet.
Details have now emerged pointing squarely at Safina Party leader Jimi Wanjigi as one of the moles Ruto is using to fracture and weaken the opposition. Wanjigi, a veteran wheeler-dealer long regarded as a shrewd operator in Kenya’s political backrooms, appeared on a television station on Monday, and that is when his true colours came spilling out for all to see.
The first red flag was his deliberate attempt to water down the united opposition’s plan to remove President Ruto from power in 2027 through the “Wantam” slogan, a rallying cry that has gained significant momentum among opposition supporters.
He then turned his guns on former President Uhuru Kenyatta, echoing the same attacks used by state operatives, accusing Uhuru of stealing a hundred billion shillings from Kenyan taxpayers during the construction of the Nairobi Expressway.
And as if that were not enough, Wanjigi refused to call on the government to lower fuel prices, even as millions of Kenyans pour onto the streets demanding relief from a cost-of-living crisis that is suffocating ordinary households. It was the kind of silence that speaks volumes, the silence of a man whose loyalties clearly lie elsewhere.
The exposure of Wanjigi comes at a particularly charged moment, with protests raging across the country over the surge in fuel prices and public anger at an all-time high. For many Kenyans watching, it was yet another reminder that in this political season, not everyone standing on the opposition side of the room is actually facing the same direction.
