United opposition on Tuesday accused the country’s electoral commission of laying the groundwork to rig the 2027 Kenya presidential election in favor of President William Ruto and threatened to sue individual commissioners and staff rather than the institution itself.
The sharp warning came during a funeral in Matunda village, Murang’a County, for Herbert Kariithi Macharia, a former United Nations official who died in a road accident. Kariithi’s wife, Pellagia Muthoni, is a senior official in the Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) led by impeached former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka, speaking at the graveside, named Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Erastus Ethekon and chief executive Hussein Marjan as potential targets of personal lawsuits.
“We are changing tack,” Musyoka said. “We will no longer sue the IEBC as an institution. We will pursue individual culpability. Those who exhibit signs of being rogue will be sued.”
Gachagua, who was removed from office in October 2024, claimed the government is “panicking” because opposition unity in the vote-rich Mount Kenya region has collapsed Ruto’s re-election prospects there.
“President Ruto and his handlers are especially scared that we in Mt Kenya have severed ties with him,” Gachagua told mourners. He vowed the region would deliver 7 million votes to an opposition candidate in 2027 while limiting Ruto to just 50,000.
Democratic Action Party-Kenya leader Eugene Wamalwa accused the government of running a campaign of “Rigathi-phobia” to demonize Gachagua and fracture the opposition.
The opposition leaders pointed to irregularities in Nov. 27 by-elections — including allegations of pre-marked ballots and voter bribery — as evidence that the IEBC is already rehearsing fraud for 2027.
IEBC chairman Ethekon rejected the accusations Monday, saying vote theft is “impossible” in Kenya and blaming politicians for most electoral chaos.
“It is politicians who run amok during elections — using intimidation, violence and polling-station sieges — then later turn to disparage the IEBC,” Ethekon said.
The opposition also broadened its attack on Ruto’s administration, accusing it of corruption, institutional decay, questionable privatization deals, unbudgeted spending and human rights violations including abductions and extrajudicial killings.
Musyoka reminded the crowd that Ruto had fiercely opposed the 2010 constitution before taking the oath of office in 2022 to defend it.
“President Ruto has carried into his presidency the same abhorrence for the constitution he displayed earlier,” Musyoka said.
Gachagua warned against government attempts to infiltrate the opposition movement.
“We will not accept saboteurs sent by the government,” he said. “Anyone who wants to win Mt Kenya must come through the front door.”
The funeral brought together key figures who have coalesced around a single goal: preventing Ruto’s re-election. Musyoka praised Gachagua’s blunt style, saying, “He speaks political truth to all,” and noted that his Wiper party had warned last year that impeaching Gachagua would pose a national security threat.
Political analysts say the emerging opposition alliance, though still fragile, is capitalizing on widespread public discontent over rising living costs, heavy taxation and allegations of state-sponsored abductions of government critics.
With less than two years until the next election, Tuesday’s display of unity in the president’s traditional stronghold signaled that the 2027 race is already heating up.
