Kenya: No Evidence Former Kenyan Second Lady Dorcas Rigathi Plans 2027 Governor Bid

Agence Olloweb / Unsplash
Fact check
2 April 2026
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Grace Gichuhi

IN SHORT: A campaign poster appears to prove that Dorcas Rigathi will run for Nyeri governor in 2027 elections, but no credible media reports confirm this.

Has Dorcas Rigathi expressed interest in running for governor? A campaign poster circulating on social media suggests she has announced a bid for the Nyeri county gubernatorial race in 2027.

Rigathi, a pastor, served as Kenya's second lady from September 2022 to October 2024. Her tenure ended after her husband, Rigathi Gachagua, was impeached as deputy president following a public fallout with president William Ruto.

The poster suggests that Rigathi will run on a Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) ticket for Nyeri county, about 170 kilometres away from Nairobi, Kenya's capital. The DCP is led by Gachagua.

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If genuine, running for public office would mark a notable shift from Rigathi's religious and advocacy work. As the spouse of the former deputy president and DCP leader, her candidacy could also help shape regional political dynamics ahead of the elections.

In Kenya, aspiring candidates first go through party nomination elections or primaries. Any suggestion of a confirmed bid outside this process raises questions about fairness.

This poster was published here, here and here.

But has Rigathi really expressed a desire to be Nyeri governor in 2027? We checked.

Fake campaign poster

If Rigathi had expressed interest in running for Nyeri governor, it would be newsworthy and would be widely reported by credible Kenyan news outlets. But we found no such reports.

We also reviewed Rigathi's Facebook and X pages and found no trace of the poster. As an active user, she would likely have shared such an announcement herself. This raises further doubts about the poster's authenticity.

Africa Check contacted both Rigathi and the DCP for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication. However, there remains no publicly available evidence of such a potentially key political development.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. X @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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