DCP takes healthcare pledge to Murang’a heartland

Gachagua’s party courts Mount Kenya voters with devolution funding promises and a unity call ahead of 2027.

By John Kamau

The Democracy for the Citizens Party yesterday took its 2027 campaign to Ciûmbû in Maragûa Constituency, Murang’a County, where Secretary General John Methu pledged to overhaul healthcare financing and forge stronger partnerships with county governments if the party forms the next government.

Addressing residents in one of Mount Kenya’s most politically competitive constituencies, Methu assured the crowd that DCP would prioritise timely disbursement of county funds — a persistent grievance that has repeatedly undermined healthcare delivery across Kenya’s 47 counties under the current administration. The commitment went beyond policy language; it was positioned as a fundamental reset of the relationship between the national government and devolved units.

“I have assured the good people of Murang’a County of DCP’s commitment to transforming healthcare when we form government by ensuring counties receive their funds on time and building strong partnerships with county governments to guarantee seamless, equitable access to quality healthcare for every Kenyan,” Methu said.

The timing and location of the visit were deliberate. Murang’a sits at the heart of the Mount Kenya region, the vote bloc that delivered President William Ruto his 2022 victory and which every credible opposition formation must now contest vigorously. DCP’s party leader, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua — whose dramatic impeachment in October 2024 transformed him from insider to opposition figurehead — is currently in the United States, leaving Methu to run an active ground campaign in his absence. The party has maintained that Gachagua’s influence over the Mount Kenya electorate remains fully intact and that his return will energise the campaign significantly.

Methu used the occasion to issue a direct appeal for national cohesion, urging Kenyans to reject negative ethnicity as the country moves into an increasingly charged electoral season. “Together we shall reclaim the nation,” he told the crowd, framing DCP as a broad national movement rather than a regional interest group — a positioning the party will need to sustain well beyond Mount Kenya if it is to be taken seriously as a presidential vehicle.

With opposition coalition talks between Komboa Kenya, Linda Mwananchi and DCP advancing, Methu’s grassroots campaign in Murang’a signals that the party intends to compete for every vote rather than wait passively for a unity deal negotiated in Nairobi boardrooms.

The mountain is in play. And every opposition formation knows it.

Some of the moments as captured in pictures

John Methu Governor Irungu Kang’ata

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