President William Ruto‘s decision to pick Rigathi Gachagua as his running mate in the 2022 presidential election followed an unusually tense selection process in which Kithure Kindiki secured more votes but ultimately lost the nomination, according to a fresh account by Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro.
Nyoro, who supported Gachagua during the contest, said Kindiki received 28 votes in the final round of the internal selection while Gachagua secured only five.
Despite the disparity, Ruto ultimately chose Gachagua, who was unveiled as his running mate on May 15, 2022. Kenya Kwanza had considered several possible candidates before settling on Gachagua, with both Gachagua and Kindiki emerging as leading contenders.
Nyoro’s account provides new details about the negotiations that preceded the decision, including claims that two prominent figures from Murang’a County were approached but declined the opportunity to deputise Ruto.
The vote
Nyoro said the selection process lasted more than 30 hours as Kenya Kwanza leaders debated who should become Ruto’s running mate.
According to his account, Kindiki dominated the final internal vote with 28 votes, while Gachagua received five.
Nyoro said he was firmly in Gachagua’s camp throughout the deliberations.
“I was campaigning for Gachagua 100 per cent; I was his chief campaigner in that thing, we got five votes but won,” he said.
The outcome meant the candidate who received the most votes did not receive the ticket.
Ruto instead selected Gachagua, whose political base in the Mount Kenya region was considered significant to the coalition’s electoral strategy.
The distinction is important: Nyoro’s account explains how he and other leaders viewed the contest, but it does not independently establish that the vote was intended to be the sole or binding mechanism for determining Ruto’s running mate.
Other names
Nyoro said Gachagua and Kindiki were not the only candidates considered.
He claimed Kenya Kwanza leaders approached former Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia and Equity Group chief executive James Mwangi.
Both men are from Murang’a County, with Macharia associated with Kigumo and Mwangi with Kangema.
According to Nyoro, the two were considered partly because of their geographical positioning and because they were not seen as carrying significant political baggage.
“We were looking for geography – which place has not produced this kind of a person, a person who is not having a lot of political majeraha,” Nyoro said.
Nyoro said Macharia declined the offer.
He added that Mwangi was subsequently approached but also turned down the opportunity.
The claims add another dimension to the 2022 running-mate contest, showing that the search extended beyond the two politicians who eventually dominated the final stage.
At the time, Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza coalition was seeking to build a broad electoral alliance ahead of the August 2022 election. Gachagua was ultimately chosen and became Ruto’s deputy after the coalition won the presidential contest.
The final choice
Nyoro said the final discussions became so difficult that he went into a separate room with Ruto and Gachagua as the leaders continued deliberations.
According to Nyoro, Gachagua then took out his phone and said he would call former President Uhuru Kenyatta, who was also seeking political support at the time.
Nyoro said the episode reflected the pressure surrounding the decision, particularly among politicians from the Mount Kenya region.
He also claimed that several leaders from the region were absent when Gachagua was unveiled and that some had threatened not to attend Ruto’s campaign rallies.
Those claims are Nyoro’s recollection and have not been independently established.
The account nevertheless helps explain why the five-vote result did not automatically translate into Gachagua’s defeat.
For Ruto, the running-mate decision was ultimately a political appointment rather than a publicly binding primary election. The final choice therefore remained his to make.
Gachagua went on to serve as deputy president after Ruto’s victory, while Kindiki remained in government and later became a central figure in the administration.
Their political paths eventually converged again.
After Ruto and Gachagua’s relationship deteriorated, Parliament impeached Gachagua in October 2024. Kindiki was subsequently nominated and sworn in as deputy president.
That sequence gives the 2022 contest an unusual political legacy: the candidate who, according to Nyoro, won the internal vote did not get the running-mate ticket, while the candidate who received only five votes eventually became deputy president.
Nyoro’s latest account does not provide definitive proof that one particular factor caused Ruto to reject Kindiki’s stronger vote tally. It does, however, offer an insider’s account of a selection process shaped by competing candidates, regional calculations and political negotiations.
The revelation that Macharia and Mwangi were also approached broadens the picture further, suggesting that Ruto’s search for a running mate was considerably more fluid, and more politically difficult, than the final ticket indicated.
