When President William Ruto meets a section of rift Valley leaders at State House, Nakuru, on Monday, they will not be discussing the 2022 elections but development.
This will be the first time Dr Ruto is hosting leaders at the Nakuru State House where the late President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and his successor Daniel Moi dished out goodies to residents and their allies.
He preferred meeting them at his Gicheha Farm in Rongai sub-county, some 20km from Nakuru City.
However, tomorrow’s meeting will be crucial for Dr Ruto as he will receive the development wish list from local leaders.
President Ruto and the leaders led by Governor Susan Kihika are expected to discuss many issues including the county’s stalled projects like the controversial multi-billion Itare Dam and the underutilised geothermal development at Menengai Crater among others development projects.
However, one group that is eagerly awaiting to catch President Ruto’s eye is a group of Pyrethrum Processing Company of Kenya (PPCK) pensioners who retired in 2009.
The pyrethrum workers’ layoffs were initiated by Dr Ruto 14 years ago when he was the Minister for Agriculture.
He issued a ministerial statement in Parliament while answering a question from former Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni about why the government sacked hundreds of workers at the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya (PBK), which later transitioned to PPCK.
Dr Ruto then said the sacking of the workers was part of the plans to revive the ailing pyrethrum sector.
However, since he made that statement, the once lucrative sub-sector that used to earn Kenya over Sh10 billion in foreign exchange is yet to be revived.
Since Dr Ruto issued the statement 13 years ago, the PPCK retirees are languishing in poverty as they wait for their pensions.
The pensioners are yet to be paid their terminal dues and they hope President Ruto will address the issue. About 60 pensioners out of the 327 have so far died.
The pensioners are hoping the Cabinet will approve the disposal of houses and land in prime areas of Nakuru City to clear the pensioners’ dues amounting to more than Sh2.1 billion.
“The matter is now before the Cabinet and we hope Dr Ruto will mention something about the issue because many pensioners are suffering,” said Mr Harun Tinga
“I think President Ruto’s visit to Nakuru is timely because he knows the problem of pyrethrum retirees and it is our sincere hope he will address it when he meets the leaders at State House,” said Mr Tinga.
