Kiraitu, Munya renew their rivalry ahead of 2022 polls

Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi and Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya have renewed their political rivalry ahead of next year’s General Election.

The two first locked horns in the 2017 election as they contested the Meru gubernatorial seat.

The battle for the seat has been narrowed down to a clash of ideologies and the Meru sub-tribe numbers. And just like other gubernatorial hopefuls, Mr Munya who was Meru’s first governor is capitalising on the incumbent’s “faults” to unseat him.

The CS has dismissed Mr Murungi’s clamour to form a regional party, which has seen the governor fail to deliver on his mandate.

The CS is leading campaigns for Jubilee Party candidate Samson Kinyua in the October 14 Kiagu ward mini poll. He poured cold water on Mr Murungi’s view that Jubilee is dead, and told the county boss to forget about the governor’s seat in 2022 and “go back to the Senate” to await his retirement from politics.

But Mr Murungi hit back, saying, his performance record was “there for anyone with eyes to see”. He added that Mr Munya’s five years in office as governor “were a pale shadow” of his four.

“Just to mention a few of my government’s achievements, we’ve drilled and equipped 195 boreholes in four years compared to Munya’s 17 in five years. We have also constructed 273 ECDE classrooms compared to Munya’s 100 in his entire term and finished 105 ECDE classrooms, which he failed to complete,” the governor said on Tuesday.

“Let Munya come. I don’t fear him. If there’s one man we’re guaranteed to beat in 2022, it’s Munya,” the governor declared.

On the formation of a regional party, which Mr Munya said did not “add any value to mwananchi”, the governor said Mr Munya knows nothing about party politics.

“Munya lacks the mandate to comment on matters concerning political parties. The last party he won an elective position with was Mbus (Alliance Party of Kenya), which I had formed. He failed to win with PNU (Party of National Unity) during the last elections despite being the sitting governor.

“Even the ruling Jubilee Party, whose candidate he is campaigning for in Kiagu ward, was formed by me,” he said.

The fresh controversy has also brought to the fore deep-seated sub-tribe politics in Meru, with the 2022 contest set to be pegged on each candidate’s strength in Igembe and Imenti sub-counties.

CS Munya has enjoyed a large following among the Igembe, while Governor Murungi has huge support in his Imenti backyard. In the 2017 General Election, Mr Munya got most of his votes from Igembe, a vote basket that Mr Murungi is keen to grab in 2022. There were more than 219,000 registered voters in Igembe North, Central and South in 2017, which could rise once mass voter registration starts.

The governor has been making inroads in the region, capitalising on the problems facing miraa farmers following closure of the Somalia market. Some key leaders from Igembe have switched allegiance to Mr Murungi, accusing the CS of doing little to influence the reopening of the market. They include MP Maoka Maore (Igembe North), Dan Kiili, James Mithika and PNU MCAs Romano Mwito (Kangeta) and Kimathi Ithibua (Kiegoi/Antubochiu).

To weaken the CS’s political grip on Igembe, Mr Maore has been leading a caucus that’s pushing for the “political independence” of the community, saying, they’ve been overshadowed by the use of the name Nyambene to refer to Tigania and Igembe.

“Meru County is made up of three distinct blocks. As we maintain Meru unity, we must also preserve the identity of every block for their needs to be easily expressed and well understood,” Mr Maore said recently.

Mr Kiili said they are pushing for an independent political identity to enable the Igembe community to get a fair share of the national cake.

“Currently, the Igembe are assimilated by the Tigania politically. We want to change this so that we can bargain for our share with any candidate because we have the numbers.” Mr Kiili said.