ODM leader Raila Odinga has criticized former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for constantly making threats and campaigning too early to remove President William Ruto before the 2027 elections.
Speaking On June 25, 2025, in Dabaso, Kilifi County during a funeral gathering at Governor Gideon Mung’aro’s house, Raila urged Gachagua to honour results of 2022 presidential elections and respect the way democracy works.
Raila was speaking during the burial of Gideon Mung’aro Senior, the father to Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro.
“The 2027 elections are coming but we’re still in 2025. We can’t keep campaigning for five years continuously, if we do that, the country won’t move forward,” he said.
In addition, he warned Gachagua, whom he believes is campaigning for the 2027 elections too early, while urging people to remove the current president from power before the right time.
“People are supposed to wait until the next election comes, then you can come out and campaign the way it’s done in other countries. In America, for example, people wait until the end of the third year before they start announcing their candidacy,” he remarked.
Raila called the threats to remove Ruto from office as foolish, ‘mambo ya ujinga’ and said that they create divisions in the country.
“The problem is when people talk about removing others from power, it is Kenyans who will make that decision, not you,” he affirmed.
The ODM leader also criticized Gachagua’s earlier statements about the government having shareholders, saying that the comments were unfair and not fit for a democracy.
“Saying that there are shareholders, some have a lot of shares, others have little shares and others none but all Kenyans pay taxes. That doesn’t make sense. We want Kenya to be united. We might disagree on policies and ideas but we need to be one country,” Raila said.
Raila’s remarks comes after Gachagua confirmed in a meeting with grassroots leaders from Kajiado, Narok and Samburu that his party the Democracy for Citizens Party will be launched on July 7, 2025.
