Political temperatures in the restive Mt Kenya region continued to rise on Monday with Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri dismissing Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua as a condescending activist.
Mr Kiunjuri—who said a united mountain must start with mutual respect among all—was reacting to remarks made during the DP’s May 19 visit to Kirinyaga County where his entourage castigated him alongside Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro as among those dividing the region politically.
The more than 20 elected leaders, who accompanied Mr Gachagua to the county for the funeral of the DP’s teacher in high school, Mr Kano Ndumbi, vowed to crush all those “undermining Mr Gachagua as the region’s undisputed kingpin”.
At the weekend, Mr Gachagua accused some close allies of the President of being arrogant and sponsors of division in Mt Kenya region”.
In his response on Kameme TV, Mr Kiunjuri said that Mr Gachagua is the real cause of his political woes, both in the region and in national politics, owing to “the demeaning mien that demands all to submit to him like school children”.
“You cannot be walking around dismissing elected leaders as traitors, collaborators and good for nothing then say you are uniting people,” Mr Kiunjuri said.
Earlier, Mr Kiunjuri was quoted as saying that the DP should ship out of the Kenya Kwanza government and form his own if he is discontented.
On Monday, Mr Kiunjuri said: “I do not understand how he figured out that I was addressing him since the government is full of many senior people who could have fallen into my attack line… maybe it is a case of the guilty being afraid.”
“We have evidence on how he has been threatening and demeaning not less than 38 elected leaders in the region, chasing some away from functions and planting opposition against others on grounds of forcing them to submit to him.
“He is going around pretending to be uniting the mountain…yet he is moving around accompanied by both elected and non-elected leaders to demean and defame those he thinks do not support him.
“I play in a higher league since in the Kenya Kwanza Alliance I am a principal who signed a coalition agreement as a political party leader …he signed nothing.
“He is going around now advocating for the ‘one man, one shilling’ resource allocation formula when all he needs to do is to go to the Cabinet and seek its endorsement.
“I have a Bill in Parliament seeking the entrenchment of resource allocation based on population…I have even asked the President to support the formula and he agreed by way of verbal promise.
“President William Ruto in the presence of Mr Gachagua and other leaders from Mt Kenya region promised us his personal support for the formula…You cannot be an activist and a Cabinet member at the same time.
“We cannot be made to submit to a person like small children...Let him continue, but once he pushes us to the wall, we will come out fighting.”
Kikuyu Council of Elders patron Mr Kung’u Muigai dismissed the exchanges among leaders in the region as “shameful and regrettable”.
He said “Mt Kenya has 47 percent stake in the President Ruto government but instead of appreciating and using it to help area people, those appointed into it are busy tearing into each other for reasons exclusively limited to greed”.
