It is obvious to even a fool that Mt Kenya region will only support a presidential candidate who has their best interests, for years that person has always been someone from within the community. However the community is under pressure to front someone else as a show of nationhood, another tribe can occupy STATEHOUSE too, its not a birth-right or God given that the president must Kikuyu and so is the feeling among Kenyans.
Yes, even the so called Kikuyu presidents did not really do anything special to the community that did not benefit rest of Kenya other than appointing fellow Kikuyus to prime positions which they used to erich their families and not the holloi polloi in Kikuyu nation.
Well, DP Ruto is desperate for numbers given that his Kalenjin backyard can only count a max two million votes while Mt Kenya region commands plus four million. To make a serious bid and come close to 50% of the votes he needs no less than 90% of the GEMA votes. This is why he has been investing in the community with countles road trips to the region since Jubilee took over. If he is not at a church function then he is launching a government project, if he is not commissioning a CDF project then he is meeting women groups, if he is not attending a funeral or a home coming of an MP or a top civil servant then he is attending a funeral, that has been his modus operandi.
So, the big question is; IS DP Ruto the best of the presidential candidates to take care of the interests of the Kikuyu? Well, Kikuyu council of elders thinks otherwise.
Even with Covid-19, Ruto is busy hosting delegations at his official residence in Karen courting the vote-rich Central Kenya bloc, he has taken to holding regular discussions with political leaders, women and youth groups from Central. Since April, he has hosted dozens of youth groups, mostly from Nairobi and Central, giving them equipment worth millions of shillings to boost their businesses.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on the other hand has moved to ensure Central remains united ahead of the 2022 election. The Kikuyu council of elders Chairman Wachira Kiago seem to be reading from the same script;
Mzee Kiago said Ruto will achieve nothing with the meetings if they are in defiance of President Kenyatta.
“He is free to meet people but if the get-togethers are not about development but 2022 politics, then that would amount to disobedience. The President has said time and again that it is not time for campaigns but work,” he said.
Kiago said Ruto will pay a heavy price for undermining preident Uhuru.
Secretary general of the Kikuyu Council of Elders Mr Peter Munga said Central Kenya will not let people from other regions divide them. “Ruto has been reduced to meeting people of no consequence just to make himself busy. He will not succeed in dividing our house,” he said.
“Ambition amounts to nothing if you do not respect your boss. Anybody who is not respectful of authority should not even aspire to be a leader.”
Munga said Ruto’s meetings appear aimed at dividing rather than uniting Central.
“Why try to divide Central region when God is about unity and peace? Leaders should learn to walk the talk,” he added.
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