Former Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni (left), former Laikipia Governor Nderitu Mureithi and Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua during the Limuru III conference in Kiambu on May 17, 2024.
Three months after the Limuru III conference unveiled a ten-point agenda, opposition leaders in Mt Kenya say their agenda to have former President Uhuru Kenyatta lead a new political plan is on course and that recent anti-government youth protests played into their overall strategy.
This is despite little direct political activity from their declared leader, former President Uhuru Kenyatta, and their newly formed Haki Coalition.
While they vow to press on with their resolve to call out bad governance by the Kenya Kwanza administration, they see the youth protesters, mainly of the Gen-Z, typically born between 1996 and 2012, and the subsequent withdrawal of contested Finance Bill 2024, as a big blessing to their course.
The conveners say they are not relenting despite the outcome of the protests, stressing that their core agenda of locking out President William Ruto from the region that gave him 87 per cent of votes in the 2022 General Election is still on course.
According to Jubilee Party Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni, the Gen Z displeasure with President William Ruto’s government, speaks to the issues they deliberated on at the conference.
He co-hosted the Limuru III event on May 17, 2024 with Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua and Kikuyu Council of elders Chairman Wachira Kiago among others.
"We can now say that the Gen Z protests had our tacit support, was part of our game plan and helped us achieve some of the agenda objectives like the dropping of the Finance Bill 2024," he said.
Mr Kioni and Ms Karua have in recent months also been among the most vocal critics of Azimio la Umoja Coalition leader Raila Odinga, who has been gravitating towards President Ruto.
Read: Revealed: Uhuru men’s ‘Haki Coalition’s’ 10-point game plan causing ripples in Mt Kenya region
Former Education Chief Administrative Secretary Zack Kinuthia, who supported Limuru III, says that the meeting prepared the ground for the protests witnessed.
“It was a vent-out gathering of people who listened keenly and rightly to the disillusionment,” says Mr Kinuthia
He, however, says the idea of the Haki Coalition was not well thought out and the announcement caught many by surprise.
Though Ms Karua’s Narc Kenya has since expressed intention to leave Azimio owing to some of its members allied to Mr Raila Odinga getting appointed to the President Ruto administration Mr Kioni said "we are more solid and focused than ever".
Ms Karua on her part told Nation Africa that the "intention to leave Azimio does not in any way mean abandoning the pursuit of a just Kenya where rule of law is norm and the installation of a government that suits the national aspirations and values".
She said the Haki Coalition that was the planned coming together of 31 political parties in the country is still a viable and live passion and is the frontline attack base against President Ruto's administration
In a phone interview with Nation Africa, Mr Kioni said the key objectives of the May meeting were to lobby Mt Kenya to remain united on the importance of speaking out against bad governance, demand equity in resource allocation and reject President Ruto in 2027.
"If you look at all those aspects, you can see that we have succeeded to lay a strong foundation towards freeing ourselves from president Ruto’s capture. Today he looks more panicky, has backed down from one-man show rule and is busy trying to seek new allies since he knows he will certainly lose the mountain," he said.
He reiterated that at the meeting "the Haki coalition acknowledges and appreciates the full support of Mr Kenyatta who is our chief advisor".
The Secretary General of the troubled Jubilee Coalition said Mr Kenyatta's goal is to see a Mt Kenya that is seriously pursuing unity of purpose, broadening its numbers by working with other communities and approaching 2027 with the awareness to correct the 2022 “mistake” at the ballot.
"It is with authority that I tell you that my party leader (Mr Kenyatta) is part and parcel of the emerging talks with other communities where so far we are working with Wiper Party leader Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, DAP-K boss Eugene Wamalwa, leaders from Rift Valley, and marginalised communities and still going," he said.
Mr Kioni said he has since assumed the role of “Mt Kenya region chief negotiator” for 2027.
Mr Kioni said they will soon be rolling out a plan that includes one Mt Kenya political party to negotiate with others, “demand a written power sharing agreement with our partners, campaign against politics of tokenism and refuse infiltration through the church”.
Other issues include campaigning that presidential running mates from the region be picked through a mini election and take head-on those opposing the region’s unity.
Mr Kioni said President Ruto will continue experiencing more pressure to deliver on his economic charters that he had signed with counties in the region ahead of 2022 elections.
However, Murang'a woman Representative Betty Maina dismissed Mr Kioni's assertion saying "what we are seeing are efforts to remove Mt Kenya region from the government and place it in the opposition".
Ms Maina wondered that when opposition is busy running into government where Raila Odinga's allies have since taken prime positions in the cabinet, "some dreamers and self-centered individuals with the help of some senior government officials are busy trying to install confused people as our leaders".
"We will not be pawned to Kalonzo or those others being incubated by the likes of Kioni," she said.
Former Meru governor Peter Munya said the Limuru III fire is still burning and will not be extinguished until Kenya gets a government that is not tone-deaf.
"Suppression of the expression of free thought, abductions and forced disappearances, awful fiscal management and lack of inspiration among our youths are raw evidence on why we are demanding far reaching change of course," said Mr Munya.
Former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu, who attended Limuru III, said the demand for one man one shilling one vote in sharing national resources was still a key demand. President Ruto and his allies have often dismissed this push, whose key proponent is Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri who has been at loggerheads with the Deputy President, who he accuses of misleading the region in the guise of unity.
He said: "Mt Kenya uniting and staging a power takeover is a good ambition but must not be progressed through an isolationist mind set.”
Mr Kiago, one of the Limuru conference conveners, said Mt Kenya remains rooted in pursuit of equitable resource allocation, agri-business gains, youth employment and completion of the projects that Mr Kenyatta had initiated between 2013 and 2022.
"Let our people be spared rooftop sloganeering campaigns and be given their share of benefits for the period running 2022-2027. The government of the day owes us that service. But at the same time we owe it to ourselves to continue agitating for a good government that will not require us to toil so much convincing it to do what it has to," said Mr Kiago, a prominent elder.
Outspoken Githunguri MP Gathoni wa Muchomba, who also attended the conference, said "we are on the verge of declaring support for an alternative presidential ambition to take on the incumbent in 2027 elections".
