Mt Kenya elders: Development is our right, not under the whims of Ruto

Kikuyu Council of Elders has told off Mt Kenya MPs who have come together to isolate Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua saying they are doing so to win development from President William Ruto government.

The MPs who are over 40 have since declared Interior CS Kithure Kindiki as their spokesman and link to President Ruto in lobbying for area development.

The elders though their Chairman Mr Wachira Kiago, warned that President Ruto was never elected so that "he can be praised and worshiped to develop our region".

"It is our right to be handed unconditional governance benefits commensurate with our needs hence why we should be spared talks about forming factional caucuses for the purpose of begging the president to develop our region," Mr Kiago said.

He said "this whole hullabaloo must not attempt to make us forget that we must remain united to a man as a region, must get our rightful share of development and must be left to wilfully choose our 2027 friends without being made to look as if we are vulnerable".

He added that all those being mentioned as ideal Mountain leaders must not package themselves as agents of divide and rule as well as acting as youth wingers of 2027 contest.

"Anyone who campaigns on the platform of praising and worshipping without preaching our unity, development and prosperity must be tagged as our enemy," he said.

This came as Kirinyaga Woman Representative Njeri Maina said "president Ruto is just paranoid and is afraid of the influence that Mr Gachagua has amassed to his favour in the Mountain and has sanctioned its splitting so as to divide and rule the vote rich region".

"It has reached a point where anyone who wants to cut a political deal with Mt Kenya must pass through Mr Gachagua or else forget about it," Ms Maina said.

National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah (Kikuyu MP) who appears to be the president's man in isolating Gachagua has since said that "we have Gachagua to blame for the slow implementation of agricultural reforms and enactment of import legislative agenda to help Nyamakima traders gain elastic profit margins".

He said Mr Gachagua is pursuing a personal interests while blackmailing the president through self gain demands.

However, Maragua MP Mary Wamaua on Saturday defended Mr Gachagua saying "what is happening is a war between those who have chosen to remain loyal to our communities' unique identify and political culture against those who want us to be controlled and lorded over from State House".

“DP Gachagua is not the one who is supposed to lead legislative agenda since he does not sit in Parliament, is not a Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Trade and Cooperatives and above all, the functions of a Deputy President as recorded in the Constitution do not include finding markets for agricultural produce,” Ms Wamaua said.

Ms Wamaua said "Ichung'wah is mischievously delegating his legislative agenda coordination task to Mr Gachagua as a propaganda weapon".

This came as fear for 2027 General Election by Mt Kenya politicians has continued to elicit realignments that risk the area splitting into county fiefdoms with each coming up with its spokesman.

The situation has been cited to have sprouted from emergence of three strong interests’  factions that are strategising to control the region ahead of 2027.

"A close look into the political space of Mt Kenya deduces the fact that we have President Ruto who is desperately trying to work out a 2027 re-election agenda in this region that gave him 87 percent of its votes and 47 percent of his authority," says Political Scientist, Mr Gasper Odhiambo adding that “losing this region throws his re-election into serious jeopardy”.

He adds that "it appears President Ruto had promised some of Mt Kenya leaders the deputy presidency in 2027 but  is now  finding it difficult to throw Mr Gachagua under the bus".

In the ground tussles, President Ruto appears to have settled on Mr Ichung'wah to help him clip Gachagua wings and help him retain a grip on the region.  

Mr Odhiambo said "Mr Gachagua has proved to be a foresighted political fox who in trying to resist being discarded, is fighting tooth and nail in uniting the region behind him hence presenting a second centre of power in Mt Kenya hence attracting opposition commensurate his stubborn muscle".

Mr Ichung'wah in partnership with Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri have painted the DP as a self serving politician using blackmail and sabotage to enrich himself and bring the president down, they claiming that they want to save the nation, Mt Kenya, and the presidency from Gachagua.

Mr Odhiambo added that "the third wing belongs to former President Uhuru Kenyatta who is stirring things up behind the scenes by sponsoring a Mt Kenya return to political prominence and avenge how Ruto whitewashed him in the region where he was reigning kingpin".

Mr Kenyatta has mostly appeared to rely on Jubilee Party Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni to roll out 2027 related programmes.

Mr Kioni has since declared himself as representative of Mt Kenya interests though sometimes saying he is ready to partner with Gachagua hence increasing the anxiety in president’s camp against the second in command.

This has effectively seen the region now suffer a spokesman crisis where President Ruto has now come out preferring an alternative point man rather than Gachagua who in turn has remained with his foot down, and Mr Kenyatta also being cited as the ideal voice by his diehards.

Mr Kioni said "the problems we are experiencing are bled of the simple fact that Gachagua did not take this region into Ruto's marriage while in a political party, with negotiations and with any written memorandum of understanding".

He said "that is the reason why our politicians in government want to localise their politics and start negotiating with President Ruto and therein risk being blackmailed to pawn us to his re-election bid".

Mr Odhiambo adds that president’s men are in a crisis since “Gachagua and Odinga support one-man-one-shilling-one-vote formula that State House opposes, the recent Gachagua heroic welcome into Luo Nyanza that aggravates fears that the DP, Kenyatta and the former Prime Minister might be crafting a 2027 political deal behind the president’s back”.

Those intrigues, among others have been behind a series of high octave politics in the region, all the camps trying to woe the ground through establishment of networks replete with propaganda slogans, and declarations that seek an edge in the vote rich Mountain.

Former Gatanga MP Mr Nduati Ngugi who represents the Kenyatta formation on Friday told AVDelta News that "the eruption of the fear within the President Ruto's camp happened in August when Gachagua gave them until December to conform and rally behind him as the region's point of reference towards 2027".

Mr Gachagua while in Kiambu County warned all those not listening to the ground and speak the language of the voters that they have until December to change their minds rest they be declared unwanted in the 2027 math.

"The moment he declared that the Mt Kenya political debate changed and all the camps started restrategising," Mr Ngugi said.

He added that President Ruto loyalists had found it hard to impeach Mr Gachagua.

"Our camp had suffered departure of Mr Odinga to Ruto's camp and Mr Gachagua had started grooming his own team to counter those defying him," he said.

Mr Ngugi added that "what we now have is President Ruto banking on unpredictable Mr Odinga to form a broad-based network to win 2027 and some of our colleagues in Mt Kenya believing that there is hope in that combination and to remain relevant, they have to bring down Mr Gachagua”.

He added that "on the other hand Mr Gachagua and Mr Kenyatta appear to be working on a common plan of taking Mt Kenya out of President Ruto's grip by wooing politicians like Mr Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, and Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya hence the recent panic driven reaction of coming out to declare Interior CS Kithure Kindiki as their link to Ruto formation".

Mr Ngugi said "Mr Gachagua and Mr Kenyatta are packing themselves in the philosophy of Gen Z demands while Dr Ruto's wing is composed of those who never expressed remorse for supporting the Finance Bill, 2024 that ended up dropped".

Mr Kiunjuri on Saturday told us that "Mr Gachagua has pushed people to rebel and isolate him owing to his demeaning tactics, selfishness and demand that his juniors submit to him like children".

But former Laikipia county woman rep Ms Cate Waruguru on Friday said that "Mr Gachagua is being isolated for refusing that Mt Kenya's 2022 voting  decision be demeaned but instead be respected and rewarded".

She said "that is the reason why President Ruto is grouping together politicians who do not believe in one-man-one-shilling-one-vote formula led by Mr Kindiki who has since dismissed it as divisive and tribal".

Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku said Tharaka Nithi, Embu, and Meru counties decided to 'secede' from Mt Kenya tag “so that we can have a leader who is Prof Kindiki who can lead us to lobby for development instead of following someone fixated with politics every dawn and every sunset”.