Kenya’s ex-deputy leader, Rigathi Gachagua, was impeached and removed from office in 2024 after falling out with President William Ruto. He is now looking to unseat Ruto in the 2027 presidential election. Amid the political rivalry, a post shared on TikTok claims to show retired president Uhuru Kenyatta, under whom Ruto served as deputy and fell out with during his time in office, speaking in favour of Gachagua. This is false; the video dates back to 2019 and comes from Kenyatta’s address during the launch of the construction of a special economic zone in the coastal city of Mombasa. Kenyatta has not publicly declared his preferred candidate for 2027.
“Kenyans, stand with Gachagua. He is the only one who can save this country!! Uhuru forgives Gachagua,” reads the English and Swahili text overlay on a TikTok video published on March 6, 2025.
Screenshot of the false post, taken March 7, 2025
“And that is why I’m calling on us to walk together and listen to one another…sometimes our politics cause people not to understand each other. I am grateful that we have come together now, and I am pleading with all the leaders, let us walk together,” Kenyatta says in the clip, part of it in Swahili.
He goes on to urge leaders to unite and make efforts to address youth unemployment, noting that “the project” will provide jobs for young people, which will in turn help in “restoring security and combating drug abuse, and other vices the youth are engaging in”.
Although it is not clear from the clip which project he is referring to, Kenyatta mentions a road that people can use to “cross to the other side” once it is completed, instead of “depending on the ferry”.
The post has been shared more than 220 times.
Old rivalries
Gachagua served as Ruto’s deputy after they took office in 2022, but they subsequently fell out. Gachagua was impeached and removed from office last year (archived here and here).
As deputy president in the previous administration, Ruto had similarly fallen out with then-president Kenyatta (archived here).
Gachagua and Kenyatta began to feud in the run-up to the 2022 general election, as Kenyatta endorsed opposition leader Raila Odinga over Ruto. What followed was a sustained onslaught against the former president by Gachagua and his allies, who accused Kenyatta of funding anti-government protests led by Odinga (archived here and here).
But in the past year, Gachagua has made attempts to woo Kenyatta in the hopes that a truce with him could strengthen his influence in the Mount Kenya region — where both leaders hail from — ahead of the 2027 general elections when he is looking to unseat Ruto (archived here, here and here).
The TikTok video purportedly showing Kenyatta warming up to Gachagua is, however, false.
2019 address
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches on keyframes from the clip to find the original footage.
An extended version of the address was published on the YouTube channel of Kenyan news outlet TV47 on October 19, 2019 (archived here).
Both videos show Kenyatta in the same flannel shirt, with his uniformed aide-de-camp standing behind him. The footage in the false post is flipped.
Screenshots comparing the false post (left) and the original address published by TV47
Kenyatta, who was still in office at the time, was speaking at the launch of the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Likoni, Mombasa County.
He made no mention of Gachagua in the address.
State House Kenya published images from the groundbreaking ceremony (archived here).
Other Kenyan media outlets also reported on the launch of the Likoni SEZ (archived here and here).
While Kenyatta has recently held separate meetings with Ruto and Odinga, he has not publicly announced his preferred candidate for 2027 (archived here and here).
However, his Jubilee Party has thrown its weight behind former interior cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i to be their flagbearer in the next presidential election (archived here).