Meru Governor Peter Munya endorsed to vie for presidency in 2022

Meru Governor Peter Munya has been tasked with forming a new party through which he will view for presidency in 2022.

Mr Munya was endorsed by delegates of the Alliance Party of Kenya (APK) who met at Meru Sports Club on Saturday.

They named Mr Munya as their new leader and asked him to champion their interests.

The meeting was called by Mr Munya to discuss the political future of the Mt Kenya East region.

This follows an announcement by the APK leader, who is also the Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi, that the part would be dissolved in favour of the Jubilee Alliance Party (JAP).

The delegates took issue with the move by Mr Murungi to unilaterally dissolve the party without consultations and respect for party procedures.

“We are saddened because we believe the party is an important political, social and economic institution for empowering the Mount Kenya East region to advance and canvas its interests nationally,” one of the resolutions read.

HOME-GROWN POLITICAL VEHICLE

The delegates said APK was a home-grown political vehicle for advancing their interests as a region, including the pursuit for the presidency in the future.

“The has been venerated as one of the three key institutions the community has had alongside the Njuri Ncheke council of elders in Tigania and miraa in Igembe.

“It is therefore extremely reckless for Senator Murungi to deny the community an opportunity to belong to this party,” the delegates said.

They said APK served the region well by providing an opportunity for new leaders to emerge.

It has also pushed for equitable allocation of resources in the region, the delegates said.

The delegates termed reports that APK was being folded to secure votes for President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto in 2017 as a “white lie.”

SUPPORT FOR UHURU

The delegates said that having parties in the region will not erode or reduce votes for President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto in 2017 as locals will still overwhelmingly vote for them.

They said the region will not join JAP “whose singular agenda is to create one domineering political narrative in politics and micro-managing our political thinking in future.”

The delegates’ resolution came even as a new wave of politics is sweeping through the Mt Kenya East region with key political leaders from the APK stronghold trooping into JAP.

The new developments have seen Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki and Senator Murungi, who were earlier seen to be engaged in a supremacy battle for the control of the vote-rich region, burying the hatchet.

However, a fallout has erupted between former key allies, Mr Murungi and Mr Munya whose unity under APK prior to the 2013 elections gave political bigwigs sleepless nights.

Mr Murungi and Mr Munya led their brigades in sweeping key elective positions in the region but the two have since differed over the former’s move to dissolve APK in order to join JAP.

The push by Meru MPs to have Mr Murungi compete with Mr Munya for the governor’s seat has also widened the rift between the two politicians.