FRESH POLITICAL SHOWDOWN AS RUTO - GACHAGUA BRACE FOR ANOTHER TWO BY ELECTIONS IN EMBU

Barely a week after the tightly contested Mbeere North parliamentary by-election, Embu has been thrust back into a political battle field following a fresh announcement from the County Assembly.

Speaker Josiah Thiriku has declared the Muminji and Evurore ward seats vacant, setting off another round of political activity in an area that has quickly become one of Mt. Kenya’s most competitive battlegrounds.

The two seats fell vacant after Newton Kariuki (Muminji) and Duncan Mbui (Evurore) resigned to contest the recent Mbeere North MP race. Both were cleared by IEBC and entered the parliamentary contest, which ended with UDA’s Leonard Wa Muthende winning by a narrow margin.

Their departures left the two wards without representation, prompting the Speaker to formally notify IEBC and trigger by-elections.

The unfolding is expected to escalate the scramble for Embu between President William Ruto’s camp and allies of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who had backed different candidates in the parliamentary race.

With UDA securing the MP seat by just under 500 votes, the fresh ward contests now offer both sides another chance to test their influence in the region.

Ruto’s allies—which campaigned heavily for Wa Muthende—are expected to move quickly to defend their ground. Gachagua’s team, encouraged by the strong performance of Kariuki despite the loss, is also preparing to regroup for the ward races.

However, attention also shifts to whether Kariuki and Mbui will return to defend the seats they gave up.
Residents are split: some argue they resigned in pursuit of higher office and should be free to seek re-election, while others feel the wards deserve new leadership after the disruption.

Their next steps will influence how parties draw their strategies for the upcoming contest.

The two ward by-elections are expected to attract heavy political activity, with both UDA and Justin Muturi's DP keen to use the outcome as a measure of their strength in Mt. Kenya following the narrow MP result. Moreover, questions still remain on wether Gachagua's DCP would shelve its candidates in favour of DP as it had done in the parliamentary by-elections.

For Mbeere North residents, the developments signal a quick return to campaign rallies, heightened mobilisation, and renewed political competition—barely days after the constituency concluded one of its most competitive parliamentary races in recent years.