Kahiga’s Raila death remarks spark outrage across Kenya’s political fault lines, as Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga’s off-the-cuff burial speech twisted the knife of grief into a dagger of division, leaving netizens and elders alike seething over what many branded a callous celebration of the late opposition lion’s demise.
Speaking at a subdued funeral in the misty slopes of Tetu Constituency, the UDA stalwart veered from condolences to a fiery sermonette, claiming divine intervention had struck down Raila Odinga for President William Ruto’s “overzealous favouritism” toward Nyanza at Mount Kenya’s expense.
“Ruto had focused so much on developing the Nyanza region and forsaken the Mt Kenya region, and because of that, God heard the cry of our people,” Kahiga proclaimed, his words captured in a grainy video, turning a moment of mourning into a meme-fuelled maelstrom.
The clip, timestamped mid-morning under a canopy of grevillea trees, shows Kahiga in a crisp navy suit, gesturing emphatically as mourners shift uncomfortably in wooden pews.
What started as a nod to local woes – crumbling roads, stalled irrigation schemes – morphed into a partisan potshot, invoking the Almighty as payback for perceived slights like the Sh100 billion Nyanza water project while Nyeri’s boreholes run dry.
“If you look closely, all things (national resources) were being channelled elsewhere,” he added. Odinga, interred just yesterday in Bondo amid black armbands and unity pleas, fought tooth and nail for equity – from the 2007 inferno to the 2022 hustler wars – making Kahiga’s zinger feel like salt in a republic-sized wound.
Backlash crashed like a Nyeri waterfall. Azimio firebrands, led by Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, torched the governor on live TV: “Baba’s grave is barely cold, and Kahiga’s dancing on it? This isn’t leadership; it’s lunacy.”
Even UDA moderates winced; Rift Valley heavyweight Kimani Ichung’wah distanced himself with a cryptic tweet: “Grief unites; grudges divide.” In Nyeri’s tea-picking heartland, where Kahiga’s 2022 win was razor-thin at 52%, locals are split: elders in Othaya market squares mutter agreement over his “tell-it-like-it-is” vibe, while youth baristas at Java House offshoots fume over the optics.
“He’s our governor, but God’s not a UDA voter,” scoffed 24-year-old activist Wanjiku Mwangi, her placard reading “Mourn with Grace, Not Glee.”
This isn’t Kahiga’s first brush with the blaze. The 58-year-old medic-turned-politico, who rode Ruto’s coattails to State House Nyeri, has a track record of unfiltered jabs – from 2023’s “handshake hypocrisy” riffs to slamming devolution as a “county cash cow”.
But timing it to Odinga’s shadow? That’s dynamite in a powder keg. Analysts peg it as pre-2027 posturing: With Ruto’s approval dipping to 38% per fresh GeoPoll numbers amid tax tremors, Kahiga’s rallying the Kikuyu base by framing Nyanza gains as theft.
Will an apology quench the fury or fuel a fiercer feud? For now, Nyeri’s governor hunkers in his hilltop office, phone buzzing with backlash, while the nation ponders – is this divine comedy or political tragedy?