Why Ruto is being treated as a trust breach suspect in Mt Kenya

President William Ruto is now being said to be a trust breach suspect in Mt Kenya region.

Word in the street is that the region gave him 87 percent of its votes so as to keep Mr Raila Odinga away from the government.

But President Ruto has gone ahead and committed the same 'grave mistake' that President Uhuru Kenyatta had committed in 2018 and brought Mr Odinga into government influence peddling.

Today, the region sulks that the very man that they voted to keep away from government has six strong seats in the government of shareholding, Mr Odinga who had no shares getting huge dividends.

The man who local musician, Mark Kamande in his 2022 song “Niaciarwo na mburi (Ruto ritually be born through goat sacrifice)” and be named Ruto arap Kioi in the Agikuyu tradition is now being prosecuted in the Mt Kenya public court with not less than 10 counts.

The counts range from alleged undermining of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, stifling one-man-one-vote-one-shilling debate, going behind the region’s back to shake Mr Odinga’s hand and trying to win former president Mr Kenyatta to his side without involving Mr Gachagua.

He is also accused of attempting to divide the church by favouring the African Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa (AIPCA), taking too long to reform agricultural sector, unleashing anti-region taxation regimes, reneging on Nyamakima traders' promise, general dishonesty, and his loyalists trying to prefect Mt Kenya politics.

Mr Gachagua together with his trouble shooters led by Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga and Embakasi North MP James Gakuya have fallen short of directly accusing the president of sponsoring political despondency in the region.

Mr Kahiga remains adamant that “all these schemes we are seeing coming to fight Mr Gachagua are emanating from some command centre”, Mr Gachagua and Mr Gakuya revealing that the centre is somewhere in the Rift Valley and progressed by “some arrogant characters around the president”.

Mr Gachagua has said “they are a few people around the president” with Mr Gakuya saying “they are president’s men winning dubious tenders and getting too much cash that they are now using to try and destabilise Mt Kenya politics”.

According to Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni, “the Ruto presidency is a disaster among our people”.

"This is so since he has banned debate of one-man-one-vote-one-shilling as the principles of representation and resource sharing,” Mr Kioni has said.

Former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu is leading another pack that is accusing the president of going against Mt Kenya’s wish of keeping off Mr Odinga from proximity of power.

“The president’s current political romance with Mr Odinga is aimed at eating into our 47 percent of shares in his government…He feels that Mt Kenya with such shares in his government is like another centre of power and to erode it, he is working with Mr Odinga to edge out Mr Gachagua,” Mr Waititu said.

Mr Kahiga told AVDelta News that “we have noted a deliberate shift of partnership".

"We see President Ruto’s government leaning towards Western and North Eastern regions as we are left with fires lit in the region to keep us busy fighting,” Mr Kahiga said.

Mr Waititu added that Mt Kenya rebelled against Mr Kenyatta not because he was a bad man, but only because he was proposing that the region vote for Mr Odinga who is a hard sell and "an outright political problem for many of us”.

“It is the same scheme that is breeding intelligence that President Ruto is attempting to reach out to Mr Kenyatta and make peace with him behind the structures of the Mountain that currently are in the custody of Mr Gachagua,” he said.

National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah dismisses the claims as “product of a thoroughly tribalised mind and representative of the negative Kenya that all modern minds spiritedly frown upon where by invoking tribe, they want to hold the president and country captive”.

Mr Ichung’wah accused Mr Gachagua of “progressing a narrative of holding the president and the country captive by weaponising Mt Kenya region interests”.

"The president as the symbol of national unity and in whose hands national stability and prosperity is constitutionally bestowed upon cannot afford to debate regional politics in such personalised parameters,” Mr Ichung'wah said.

Nominated Senator Veronica Maina says “this is a president whose single objective is a united Kenya".

"He has not shown any sign that he treats Mt Kenya region with contempt,” Ms Maina said.

The Mt Kenya Africanism Gospel Promoters Union Chair Bishop Edward Nyutu says “the president is attempting to create a religious state where AIPCA is the government’s most favoured church”.

"The church has been described by both the president and his deputy as Hustlers’ church and where already four of its senior members have been appointed into government jobs, received land and cash with more promises pending hence forming a clear picture of a regime that is out to create a religious state with no referendum endorsement,” Bishop Nyutu said.

Mr Gachagua has since said “the AIPCA church did not shy off from leaning to our 2022 General Election aspiration even when all other churches locked their doors on our faces…The Ruto administration will also not shy off from leaning to your side…you name it and we will accomplish it…our role will be to obey you”.

This elevation of AIPCA church to national limelight is blamed for the not too friendly stances that other faiths express as position for the Ruto presidency especially in the Mt Kenya region.

Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua told AVDelta News that "the Ruto administration lied to our farmers that it will increase their market gains by way of enforcing Minimum Guarantee Return on cash crops as well as in the dairy sector”.

“These two years down the regime’s life in power it is only proposing taxes on domestic animals, cash crops and also delaying coffee payments and no enthusiasm noted in writing off of our agricultural sector debts,” Ms Karua said.

Ms Karua said “when our wise saying has it that you should not break the farmer’s hand, the Ruto regime is breaking the farmer’s back”.

Taxation is another front that President Ruto is being accused of hurting Mt Kenya with.

“The Ruto administration is coming out as one whose intention is to kill all enterprises. We are trying to advise him that he should not overtax us, but rather widen the tax net. But he is on the rampage hurting all sectors with additional taxes that do not factor in profitability. The kind of taxes he is proposing will certainly kill savings, investments and earnings hence aggravating cycle of poverty,” said former Presidential aspirant Mr Peter Kenneth.

He said taxation is one single reason president Ruto is losing favour in Mt Kenya region.

Former Gatanga MP Nduati Ngugi said the president appears as if he is comfortable with one term rule.

"He is not working hard to win people to his side, rather he is deliberately repelling them especially in Mt Kenya region,” Mr Ngugi said.

Former Education Chief Administrative Secretary Zack Kinuthia said the Ruto administration is behaving as if "it was a favour he did to us for becoming our president… it is as if he is not a product of voting”.

He said the president always comes out telling the nation that he has a plan for Kenyans.

"He says ‘I know where I want to take you and I will deliver the promise’. This is too vague, indicative of a man whose value for public participation is nil,” Mr Kinuthia said.

“I will boldly state that President Ruto has exercised general dishonesty in dealing with Mt Kenya region and the country at large, has abandoned the Nyamakima traders who he promised reformed import policies as well as cushioning them against imperfect and distorted markets under the influence of foreigners as well as ensuring trading costs will be reduced to give them competitive edge,” he added.

However, Maragua MP Mary wa Maua said “we should not be carried by emotions of opposition politics whose core drive is to make the government look bad for 2027 competition”.

"Elected leaders are the best suited to report about government successes and failures since it is we who are in the kitchen where the cake is being baked,” Ms Wa Maua said.

Mr Kinuthia said opposition politicians both in and out of elective offices are what is called oversight “and government cannot be governance and oversight at the same time”.

Ms Wa Maua said “my constituency is testimony of Ruto’s love and development drive since in his rule so far, I have seen projects worth more than Sh3 billion launched”. 

She added that “Mt Kenya is comfortable in President Ruto’s rule and by the time we reach 2027 elections, by evidence of what I am seeing and hearing as an insider in this government, it will be futile to stand against it”.

Kikuyu Council of Elders Chairman Wachira Kiago feels that “we are being accorded unwelcome censorship by some Ruto loyalists who have even developed guts to be ordering us to cease holding our meetings to chart our roadmaps”.

“The president should order his men to cease these irritating unsolicited advises that they keep on hurling our way any time they hear that we are meeting as a community,” Mr Kiago said.

He said “we have noted with utter consternation some of President Ruto loyalists telling us that we are tribal for holding our meetings, irony being that they use platforms of their community meetings to dismiss us as tribal”.

Mr Kiago said “we will continue meeting without any apologies or intimidation and our key objective is to reach out to other communities that share common goals with Mt Kenya for future partnerships that include political activities”.