Uhuru Rejects ‘Sponsor’ Tag as Gachagua Accuses Ruto of Splitting Mt Kenya Vote
September 2026
Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta pushed back on claims that he is funding opposition politicians, speaking at the 23rd memorial service for former Vice-President Michael Kijana Wamalwa in Kitale on Sunday, August 23, 2026. The former head of state was reeling off names of political leaders when the crowd erupted in cheers at the mention of Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, and Uhuru turned the moment into a joke about being branded a sponsor.
Uhuru told the gathering that the choice of who leads Kenya after 2027 belongs to voters, not to politicians pulling strings behind the scenes, saying in Swahili that “Wakenya watajichagulia wenyewe”, meaning Kenyans will choose for themselves. He stopped short of endorsing any candidate during the service, sticking instead to his familiar line that no Kenyan should be pushed into a political camp.
Ruto’s Funding Accusations
The sponsor row has simmered for weeks. President William Ruto has repeatedly claimed that Uhuru bankrolls opposition figures, saying during a recent outing that “now he has gone to sponsor his proteges to come and compete with me”. He has paired the accusation with jabs at Uhuru’s record on housing and healthcare during his own decade in office.
Ruto has also brushed off the opposition’s chances, telling one crowd that “I will defeat them early in the morning because they have no plan, agenda, policies or vision”. Nairobi Senator Sifuna, whose Linda Mwananchi movement has been named in the accusations, has dismissed the funding claims and pointed out that Ruto has yet to provide evidence to support the allegation, arguing the president instead cited a newspaper headline as proof.
Gachagua’s Wheelbarrow Claim
The same weekend, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua raised a related but separate accusation at a church service. Speaking in Karatina, Nyeri County, on Sunday, Gachagua accused Ruto of using small new parties, which he calls wheelbarrows, to fracture the Mount Kenya vote between its eastern and western halves.
Gachagua argued the strategy is designed to stop any single camp from controlling the region’s roughly eight million votes, which he said would force the 2027 presidential race into a run-off. He claimed Ruto’s advisers had warned him that rising opposition to his government elsewhere in the country made splitting Mount Kenya his best remaining option.
Gachagua’s allies have separately turned their fire on newer outfits in the region, including the party linked to Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro. DCP secretary general John Methu had already used the same wheelbarrow label days earlier, though Ruto and his allies have not been established to have admitted any coordinated plan to split the vote.
Gachagua has also had to answer the sponsor question himself. At an earlier church service in Gatundu South, he denied that Uhuru funds his movement, telling worshippers that the opposition does not need any sponsorship because ordinary Kenyans are driving the push for change.
What Happens Next
Neither dispute looks close to settled. Ruto has not produced the evidence Sifuna and Uhuru say he owes them, while Gachagua has yet to name the politicians he claims are secretly working with State House on new parties.
With the 2027 race still more than a year off, both arguments matter well beyond the individuals involved. How the Mount Kenya vote splits, and whether opposition figures can shake off the sponsor label, will shape which coalitions Kenyans across the country end up choosing between at the ballot box.
