Discontent is brewing in Mt Kenya region over the sacking of its sons and daughters holding top positions in Kenya Kwanza government for sleeping on the job while Kalenjins occupying similar dockets facing turbulence are spared.
Kipchumba Murkomen
The latest is the dismissal of Kenya Airports Authority managing director Alex Gitari whom Transport cabinet secretary Kipchumba Murkomen blamed for the transport paralysis that was caused by nearly 2-hour power outage, resulting in passengers at JKIA being stranded in darkness for hours.
Former Kenya Airports Authority managing director Alex Gitari
And now, Mt Kenya residents are questioning the sacking of Gitari while Kenya Power chief executive officer Joseph Siror who heads the body that distributes power to JKIA, was spared.
What is irking the Kikuyus is that Gitari’s sacking came soon after Murkomen showed another high-ranking Kikuyu the door.
Margaret Muthui
The Roads and Transport CS a month ago sacked Margaret Muthui accusing her of leading a cartel fleecing the ministry.
Muthui’s sacking came days after president William Ruto stated that there was one lady in one of the roads department who was corrupt to the core to the extent that she could not be transferred by anybody, even by the minister, because if she was transferred, she would go to court, buy the court process and make a comeback.
Kandie
And now, questions are being asked on why Murkomen has not sacked Philemon Kandie, who the Employment and Labour Relations Court found was irregularly recruited as Kerra Director-General.
Josephine Mburu
Mt Kenya residents are further murmuring that their daughter, former Health principal secretary Josephine Mburu was sacrificed in the Sh3.7 billion anti-mosquito net scandal at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority.
Medical Services PS Peter Tum
Mburu was sacked despite the fact that her then colleague Medical Services Peter Tum was the line principal secretary. Tum did not sign any papers though after he smelled a rat which saved him.
Another Mt Kenyan booted out is University of Nairobi vice-chancellor Stephen Kiama who was reportedly forced to go on leave after clashing with DVC Finance Margaret Jesang Hutchinson.
Githii Mburu
Also forced out for alleged underperforming was Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General Githii Mburu.
Mburu was forced to resign after a three-years’ stint at the seat on the 30th floor of Times Tower in an executive shakeup.
Mulongo
The government has since appointed Humphrey Mulongo, as KRA Commissioner General. Also worrying the Kikuyus was the sacking of KRA top official, Joseph Kaguru over the sugar scandal.
Kuguru was suspended alongside KeBS managing director Bernard Njiraini and Geoffrey Muriira, director Quality Assurance and Inspection.
Rigathi Gachagua
The Kikuyu are now murmuring that their son, deputy president Rigathi Gachagua is toothless and cannot defend the community’s interests.
Gachagua, a vocal critic of Azimio leaders Raila Odinga and former president Uhuru Kenyatta and former vice president Kalonzo Musyoka, has not commented on the sacking of Kikuyus for alleged poor performance while Kalenjins holding similar key dockets facing turbulence are spared.
And now a silent rebellion is brewing against the Ruto administration in Mount Kenya region where the residents have been conservatives since independence.
Majority of the residents are now crying foul, accusing Ruto of going against the pledges he made.
They are also accusing their leaders, majority of them having secured election through UDA, of being toothless. They are using the word tugege (idiots) to describe the leaders elected on UDA tickets.
And now Weekly Citizen has established that even close allies of Ruto are worried that the head of state is making a fatal mistake that will see residents rebel against him and embrace Raila or any alternative leader that will eventually emerge.
Two months ago when Ruto and Raila held a crisis meeting in Mombasa, some Kikuyu Kenya Kwanza leaders were hosted by
Waiguru
Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru’s at her Runda residence in the capital, Nairobi, for a night meeting to chart the way forward to circumvent the emerging threat to their leadership.
The meeting that went on into the wee hours of the morning, was attended by prominent leaders, including the abrasive Trade cabinet secretary Moses Kuria, house majority leader Kimani Ichung’wa,
Alice Wahome
Water cabinet secretary Alice Wahome, Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, Kiambu governor Kimani Wamatangi, Nyandarua governor Kiarie Badilisha and his Laikipia counterpart Joshua Irungu, among others in queue.
All Mt Kenya leaders allied to Gachagua were not invited by Waiguru to the secret meeting.
On the table for discussion were three burning issues that the Mt Kenya leaders felt presumably felt uncomfortable with.
The first item on the menu was the mooted deal between Ruto and Raila, which the leaders present feared would relegate them to the periphery of political isolation from the Ruto administration centre force, as well as scuttle their gameplan to produce the coalition’s presidential candidate in the impending 2027 general election.
Cecily Mbarire
The second item on the agenda was the steady rise of Embu governor Cecily Mbarire, a close ally of Gachagua, whom they felt is being positioned by elements in the Ruto administration to become the region’s second most influential leader after the deputy president.
Then came third agenda, the emergence of former Agriculture cabinet secretary Peter Munya in the political arena with the backing of Uhuru.
A source that attended the meeting revealed that majority of the leaders’ present expressed reservations about the political deal between Ruto and Raila.
They discussed at length the repercussions of the anticipated agreement between the leader of the opposition and the president, fearing it will backfire on them since they have made the Mt Kenya electorate to believe that Ruto and Raila cannot work together.
Ichung’wa
The leaders lamented that the president was betraying them by acceding to Raila’s demands, and thus mandated Ichung’wa to lead their troops in parliament to scuttle any such deal.
The leaders also expressed concerns that the president was embracing Raila at a time some members of the Kikuyu community trading in Nairobi are counting losses after their properties were either vandalised or set on fire during the anti-government protests called by Raila.
They argued that the talks between the two may lead to a power-sharing deal which, according to them, is like rewarding impunity. In addition, the leaders feared that the talks between the president and the opposition leader may go the 2018 handshake way that led to bad blood between Uhuru and his deputy, Ruto.
Also of concern to them was the rising of Mbarire who was last week appointed by Ruto to the Kenya Kwanza five-member team for bipartisan talks with Azimio.
Catherine Wambilianga
Kenya Kwanza picked Ichung’wa to lead the team that has senate majority leader Araon Cheruiyot, Mbarire, former Mombasa senator and currently East Africa Assembly Legislator Hassan Omar and Bungoma woman representative Catherine Wambilianga.
The leaders were further of concern that Mbarire who is from the Embu community that accounts for less than 300,000 votes was picked in the talks team a few months after she was appointed UDA party chairperson to replace the fire-spitting Johnson Muthama.
Johnson Muthama
At the meeting, Waiguru told the attendees that she had told the president of her ambition to be appointed UDA chairperson to replace Muthama instead of Mbarire and the head of state had agreed before the president changed his mind leading to things falling apart.
The governor further told the meeting that in the new arrangement with Ruto, the Embu governor was to vie for the Council of Governors chair while Waiguru became the UDA chairperson. Waiguru who is serving her second and final term as governor, aimed to use her influence as UDA chair to remain relevant in the 2027 political dispensation.
But now, all that is up in smoke after Mbarire’s elevation is a titanic political battle of forces of survival and inclination. The Embu governor is serving her first term as governor, and will defend her seat on the ticket in the 2027 polls.
At the meeting, Waiguru also read mischief on Ruto’s praise for Mbarire on May 12, this year, when the head of state revealed why he has a lot of admiration for the governor.
