The political temperatures in the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) continued to simmer on Thursday morning as Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku, a close ally of President William Ruto gave more insight in why politicians from Meru and Embu counties have renewed their push to have Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki replace Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua as the region’s kingpin and spokesperson.....CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
President William Ruto’s allies have in the past week been defending the calls to sideline Gachagua with his allies pushing back with determination to kill any such plans, should they materialize.
Heated discussions between Gatanga MP Edward Muriu, who is an ally to DP Gachagua dismissed the calls to divide the Mt Kenya region into East and West, a move that has been associated with the mounting pressure to sideline Gachagua from the government.
Ruku, while defending the recent political endorsement of the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki claimed that the Mt. Kenya East region has for long been sidelined and its now high time, in his opinion to chart a different political path.
‘’We have decided as a region that we will take a different political journey because our cousins from the West have taken advantage of us and taken us as voting machines, and that is why we have decided to take an independent political journey,’’ Ruku stated.
Ruku linked the political direction to the perceived exclusion of Mt Kenya East region when it came to development issues, maintaining that the region development plans were in limbo.
‘’We don’t have a single kilometer of Mau Mau roads that they are telling us, we are going to chart our own political dimensions,’’ he maintained.
‘’We don’t have good roads, water connection, no electricity or the dams that we needed to be constructed in the area, but when priority issues come, they are given to the West even in terms of employment in the national government’’ Ruku alleged. ”The cousins of ours from the West are extremely selfish and our interests have never been taken care of,’’ he added.
However, Muriu dismissed the claims terming them as political gimmicks aimed at Gachagua. Muriu went ahead and dared those opposed to Rigathi to make good their threats to hound the country’s second in command from office.
‘’ If they feel that the Deputy President is not working then they should go ahead and remove him from the position, there are mechanisms in place for that,’’
Muriu maintained that President Ruto will likely not support the plans, maintaining that he chose Gachagua as the running mate because of the numbers that he was able to command from the region.
‘’What will matter is who will be able to bring the votes, that is what the President will look at instead of these diversionary talks,’’ maintained Muriu.
‘’The President chose Gachagua not because he was clever, no it was a strategic move for the votes from the region and that has not changed,’’ he added.
There have been rising political temperatures in Mt Kenya over the political kingship position with Ruto’s political allies reading from a different script with Gachagua’s.
Muriu reminded those raising the political temperatures to focus on service delivery instead and wait for the right time to campaign. ‘’Kenyans are waiting for the all the things that we put in our manifesto, let us not forget about that,’’ he added….CLICK HERE FOR MORE ARTICLE>>>
