A parliamentary by-election in Embu county has descended into a bizarre contest of kitchen etiquette and tribal one-upmanship, with Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and his sacked predecessor Rigathi Gachagua trading increasingly personal barbs over cups of tea.
The poll on 27 November, triggered by the appointment of former MP Geoffrey Ruku to the cabinet, has become a proxy battlefield for the soul of the Mount Kenya East vote. Kindiki is campaigning vigorously for United Democratic Alliance candidate Leonard Wamuthende, while Gachagua throws his weight behind Democratic Party hopeful Newton Kariuki.
In an attempt to blunt opposition momentum, Kindiki has dangled the prospect of government jobs even for rivals who lost the party nomination. Speaking in Mbeere North on Thursday, he urged opponents to lower the temperature of political discourse.
“Dont accept anyone to tell you to stone your neighbour over elections. We should not fight over politics. Things can change and accommodate even those in opposition,” he said, a remark interpreted as an olive branch to Kariuki.
But the campaign has been anything but conciliatory. Gachagua has branded Kindiki a sell-out who abandoned the mountain after replacing him as deputy president, dismissing him as a “yes man” serving only President William Ruto’s interests.
Kindiki hit back with a cultural broadside, mocking Gachagua’s habit of sharing morning tea with women inside their kitchens.
“Tell those brothers wandering around drinking tea in mothers’ kitchens that we elders here do not enter kitchens,” Kindiki declared in Kiembu, invoking customs shared by Mbeere, Meru, Tharaka and Kikuyu communities.
“What do you want to see, your mother’s nakedness? What are you doing in the kitchen?” He further accused Gachagua’s team of carrying their own tea leaves out of distrust for local hospitality.
He also slammed Gachagua’s past accusing him of embezzling food aid during his stint as District officer, a claim that is yet to be confirmed.
The former deputy president’s camp has framed the tea-drinking visits as authentic grassroots connection. The tactic has proved contagious. Kindiki and UDA teams now knock on the same doors, and on Saturday former cabinet secretary Moses Kuria joined the trend in nearby Ishiara, sipping tea with voters while campaigning for a different candidate.
Political analysts see the by-election as an early referendum on Kindiki’s standing in the region following Gachagua’s dramatic impeachment last year. With national attention fixed on who can still command loyalty in the president’s backyard, every shared cup has become a ballot in miniature.
