Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka’s shadow loomed large as Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen pitched tent in the Ukambani region for three days, seeking views on ways to boost security.
The highlight of the security consultative forums dubbed Jukwaa la Usalama was the call for enhanced collaboration between citizens, security agencies and the government to tame land disputes, drug abuse, sexual and gender-based violence, highway robbery and vandalism of critical infrastructure. These emerged as the biggest security threats in Kitui, Machakos and Makueni counties.
Mr Murkomen ended up confronting Mr Musyoka's political influence in the region as allies of the former vice president used the forums to assert his dominance in his political bedrock.
“Tell Mr Musyoka to join the broad-based government now. Why should he gamble with a future date? We can work together as Kenyans today as we plan elections tomorrow,” Mr Murkomen said as he concluded the Ukambani tour at Machakos Town on Saturday.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen addresses a security consultative forum at Wote Town in Makueni County on April 25, 2025.
Photo credit: Pius Maundu | Nation Media Group
The minister was responding to Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi, who had challenged him to prepare for Mr Musyoka’s presidency.
Mr Mwangangi is part of the Ukambani political class, which saw Mr Murkomen’s tour in Kitui, Machakos and Makueni counties as a curtain raiser to a planned visit by President William Ruto in the region.
Echoing Makueni Senator Daniel Maanzo who addressed the Makueni County edition of the Jukwaa la Usalama forum at Wote Town the previous day, Mr Mwangangi said President Ruto stood no chance of winning over the Ukambani voting bloc.
“We have our political kingpin in this region to whom we are loyal. If he tells us to turn right, we turn right. If he tells us to turn left, we turn left. Let no one lie to you. Tell President Ruto to access the Ukambani region through Mr Musyoka and not anyone else,” Mr Mwangangi told Mr Murkomen on Saturday.
Mr Murkomen and Interior Principal Raymond Omollo led security chiefs in setting the stage for a fresh wave of confrontation between President Ruto and Mr Musyoka over contested parcels of land in Machakos County after escalating the longstanding land dispute to the National Security Council.
Terming land the biggest security threat in Machakos County, Mr Murkomen placed prominent politicians, businessmen and government officials at the centre of a land syndicate which grabs private and public land in Machakos County.
“Most of the squatters who are giving us problems in Machakos County are procured, transported and paid to occupy private and public land with the intention of grabbing it in the end. These are gangs who are hired by land grabbers from different parts of the country.
"We had a successful removal of these squatters from the East African Portland Cement Company (Eapcc) land in Mavoko Sub-county, but the problem still persists,” Mr Murkomen told reporters in Machakos Town.
“We have decided from our security briefing today that this issue must be escalated to the national intelligence council and that we must have one strategy which transcends political regimes to confront the Machakos land fraud once and for all,” Mr Murkomen said.
The upshot is that President Ruto, who chairs the national security council, will assume a bigger responsibility in the crackdown on squatters claiming disputed parcels of land in Machakos County.
This would put him on a collision path with Mr Musyoka, who has been a fierce champion of the rights of squatters who claim some of the vast parcels of land in Machakos County, which are plagued by ownership disputes.
Mr Musyoka has on several occasions called out President Ruto for overseeing the demolition of homes on a 4,298-acre parcel of land in Mavoko sub-County, which is claimed by both EAPCC and a section of Machakos squatters after a court ruling on the land two years ago.
“This is a crime against humanity meted out on the Kenyans living in Mavoko,” he said a day after the demolition, which started on October 13, 2023.
The former vice president had personally represented some of the victims of the demolitions in court in the concluded case.
