President William Ruto‘s UDA and form a new party is led by Mount Kenya’s former lawmakers and governors who accuse the president of sidelining the region following the formation of his new ‘broad-based’ cabinet, and are critical of the inclusion of members of Raila Odinga’s opposition ODM.....CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Former lawmaker Kimani Ngunjiri said the majority of political leaders from the region have lost faith in Ruto and his ruling UDA, accusing him of broken promises.
“We shall form our own party. Ruto’s UDA is now in bed with the opposition,” Ngunjiri said, adding that Mount
Kenya voters’ decision to support Ruto in 2022 without a written agreement is regrettable and has put the region at a political disadvantage.
Former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu said many residents regret supporting Ruto. He says the region lost its influence when it opted to support Ruto instead of forming its own party to safeguard its interests.
“We want to speak in one voice and with our own party. We shall field a presidential candidate in 2027 to challenge Ruto,” he said.
He added: “Ruto lied to us and instead rewarded the opposition with powerful cabinet positions”.
Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga, who is largely seen as Gachagua’s Mount Kenya mouthpiece, has repeatedly questioned the new-found love between Ruto and Raila’s ODM, which he said undermined the region’s influence in government.
In May, leaders from the opposition parties in the politically divided region announced the formation of the HAKI coalition to advocate for the region’s interests and unity under former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The leaders, Martha Karua of the NARC Kenya party and Jeremiah Kioni of the former ruling Jubilee Party, accused
Gachagua of failing to protect the region’s interests despite being in government.
Other smaller parties from the region, including the Party of National Unity (PNU), the New Democrats, and the Party of Democratic Unity, have also recently and publicly declared their intentions to unite and challenge UDA dominance in their region ahead of the 2027 polls.
Political analyst Carol Situma tellsThe Africa Reportthat political leaders from Mount Kenya have now realised joining Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Alliance in 2022 without their own party to represent the region’s aspirations and interests was a significant political miscalculation.
“Lack of better bargaining power within the government they helped form is pushing them to create their own party,” she says, adding that forming a new party could provide Ruto with an avenue to seek new alliances, particularly from opposition strongholds in the Western and Coastal regions ahead of the next polls.
However, Situma adds that the leaders face an uphill task in actualising their plan due to political divisions.
“Not everyone is supporting the plan. Youthful politicians from Mount Kenya seem to fully support Ruto and the UDA party,” she says.
Julius Kairu, a UDA member, tellsThe Africa Reportthat he opposes the formation of a regional political party, arguing that such an movement would only benefit politicians who seek to use ethnicity to divide and rule the poor for their own interests.
“It’s a shame that 60 years after independence, we are still mobilising political support along tribal and regional lines,” he says. According to him, UDA was formed on the principles of a national party to end smaller tribal parties.
He warns that any attempts by Mount Kenya politicians to form a regional party will continue to divide Kenya alongpolitically motivated tribal lines.
With reports of a possible impeachment of Gachagua as Deputy President by Parliament, he has not publicly stated his position on the plans for a new party propagated by his allies.
While accompanying President Ruto last week in Kirinyaga, his political base, Gachagua said he has no plans to leave the UDA government but stressed that the Mount Kenya region gave Ruto 47% of the votes during the 2022 polls.
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