{"id":14435,"date":"2026-01-10T03:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/14435\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T03:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:25:09","slug":"gachagua-addresses-kagio-crowd-wearing-helmet-bulletproof-vest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/14435\/","title":{"rendered":"Gachagua addresses Kagio crowd wearing helmet, bulletproof vest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/d3c70557-a076-424a-9722-df7beaa07422.jpg\" class=\"ui-draggable ui-draggable-handle\" style=\"max-width: 100%; width: 100%;\"\/>Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua addressing the crowd in Kagio in Kirinyaga County\/X<\/p>\n<p>Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua addressed supporters in Kagio, Kirinyaga County, while wearing protective gear that included a military-style helmet and a bulletproof vest, an unusual sight in Kenya\u2019s political campaigning.<\/p>\n<p>In the image shared on his X account, Gachagua is seen standing through the sunroof of a vehicle, holding a handheld microphone as he speaks to the crowd. <\/p>\n<p>He is dressed in a bright green long-sleeved shirt layered under a dark ballistic vest, with the protective gear visibly strapped around his torso. A black helmet, commonly associated with tactical or security operations, is firmly secured on his head.<\/p>\n<p>The combination of civilian clothing with protective equipment differed from the suits, branded shirts, or party regalia commonly worn at public rallies.<\/p>\n<p>The appearance came amid heightened security concerns following earlier disruptions along his route to the event.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/32e839ea-45d3-4071-94a8-ded22eea1103.jpg\" class=\"ui-draggable ui-draggable-handle\" style=\"font-size: 0.875rem; width: 100%;\"\/>Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua addressing the crowd in Kagio in Kirinyaga County\/X<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nGachagua\u2019s choice of dressing came hours after his convoy encountered teargas in Sagana as he and Nyandarua Senator John Methu travelled to Kagio for a public engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Images circulating online showed vehicles turning back amid reduced visibility.<\/p>\n<p>In a tweet hours later, Gachagua said they braved the pushback and reached their destination in one piece.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite the heavy attack&#8230;, live ammunition, teargas, vandalism of our equipment&#8230;we reached the very heart of Kirinyaga County\u2014Kagio!&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nThe people of Kirinyaga are resilient and courageous, united as one in the pursuit of change on August 10th, 2027!&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nGod bless you, and God bless Kenya!&#8221; Gachagua captions the photos.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/241af387-fae7-44f2-8b22-52642601ce02.jpg\" class=\"ui-draggable ui-draggable-handle\" style=\"max-width: 100%; width: 100%;\"\/>Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua addressing the crowd in Kagio in Kirinyaga County\/X<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/61f9a1a7-36bf-4361-b909-97de0e4d84b2.jpg\" class=\"ui-draggable ui-draggable-handle\" style=\"max-width: 100%; width: 100%;\"\/>Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua addressing the crowd in Kagio in Kirinyaga County\/X<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b6477eda-f9f2-4a92-954c-7614a2103d4d.jpg\" class=\"ui-draggable ui-draggable-handle\" style=\"max-width: 100%; width: 100%;\"\/>A convoy carrying Nyandarua Senator John Methu and DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua ran into teargas on Friday evening, January 9, 2026. \/JOHN METHU<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a5d8a28b-8202-44f4-9ef1-089185263f7d.jpg\" class=\"ui-draggable ui-draggable-handle\" style=\"max-width: 100%; width: 100%;\"\/>A convoy carrying Nyandarua Senator John Methu and DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua ran into teargas on Friday evening, January 9, 2026. \/JOHN METHU<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2b6a79b1-fa6c-498e-9e03-3cad2c9b34c3.jpg\" class=\"ui-draggable ui-draggable-handle\" style=\"max-width: 100%; width: 100%;\"\/>A convoy carrying Nyandarua Senator John Methu and DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua ran into teargas on Friday evening, January 9, 2026. \/JOHN METHU<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/71e7988b-036d-49c2-b8c5-bfa3029d921c.jpg\" class=\"ui-draggable ui-draggable-handle\" style=\"max-width: 100%; width: 100%;\"\/>A convoy carrying Nyandarua Senator John Methu and DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua ran into teargas on Friday evening, January 9, 2026. \/JOHN METHU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua addressing the crowd in Kagio in Kirinyaga County\/X Former Deputy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[5811,9620,80,9619,9618,98,100,9621,101,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-14435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-gachagua","9":"tag-kagio","10":"tag-kenya","11":"tag-kirinyaga","12":"tag-methu","13":"tag-star-news","14":"tag-star-news-kenya","15":"tag-teargas","16":"tag-the-star","17":"tag-the-star-newspaper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}