Gachagua hits the fairway in Portland as 2027 campaign takes shape

The former deputy president’s Oregon golf outing signals a deliberate push to mobilise diaspora support ahead of what promises to be Kenya’s most consequential election in a generation.

By James Mwangi

Rigathi Gachagua yesterday played in a golf tournament alongside his wife and Kenyan diaspora members at Gresham Golf Course in Portland, Oregon, in what observers regard as the opening move of an intensifying overseas political campaign ahead of the August 2027 general election.

The appearance was carefully framed. Gachagua described the outing as “truly fulfilling” — language that signals community rather than campaign, yet the political calculus is unmistakable. With eleven months to polling day, every handshake, every shared fairway, and every photograph with Kenyans abroad is currency in a race that is already drawing battle lines.

Removed from the deputy presidency in October 2024 following a parliamentary impeachment, Gachagua has since repositioned himself as an opposition figure, leading the Democracy for the Citizens Party and cultivating networks across Mt Kenya and the diaspora with growing urgency.

The diaspora vote is not decorative. Kenyan communities in North America carry both financial muscle and symbolic weight in domestic politics. A former deputy president working the golf courses of Oregon is a man who understands exactly where the next election will be won and lost.

Some of the moments as captured in pictures

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