Meru-Embu lay claim to 2022 DP position

The Mt Kenya East’s Ameru and Aembu communities have crafted a bold plot to assert themselves in national politics and demand a bigger role in the post Uhuru era.

The Sunday Nation has established that this subject dominated a closed door meeting that brought together 120 leaders who included MPs, senators, MCAs and county assembly speakers to a session that continued well after midnight, having started at 5 pm two Saturdays ago.

The Meru, Embu and Tharaka-Nithi counties that make up the Mount Kenya East bloc have always voted with central Kenya under the loose Gema (Gikuyu Embu and Meru Association) political arrangement but there is the feeling that the rules of engagement need to be amended to accord them a place in the political high table.

“It was a stormy meeting largely because the participants felt that Jubilee administration has not fulfilled its campaign promises to them.

From the discussion, the government’s scorecard in the region is below 30 per cent. They want the projects completed before 2017 polls or else there is no guaranteed support for Mr Kenyatta’s re-election,” outspoken Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi, who moderated one of the sessions, told the Sunday Nation.

With about 1.1 million registered voters, the region would certainly deny Mr Kenyatta a second term were they to craft a new alliance in 2017.

POLITICAL RENAISSANCE

And so if actualised, this political renaissance would no doubt disturb the power balance the region has known over the years.

Central Kenya has always bargained for alliances with other regions under assumption that Mount Kenya East is already in their basket.

A communique they issued afterwards returns a verdict of a people who feel taken advantage of.

“We observe that successive governments including the current government have made a number of development pledges in Mt Kenya East region during and after elections. Sadly, many of these commitments remain unfulfilled in spite of our overwhelming perennial support for the government.”

The region supported Mr Mwai Kibaki in his two terms and Mr Kenyatta in 2013.

To henceforth push their own interest at the national level, they resolved to empower Senate Majority Leader and Tharaka-Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki to look after their interest at the national level.

NJURI NCHEKE ELDER
This elevates Prof Kindiki further after what had initially appeared to be a frosty relationship with Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi whom he thrashed in the senate majority duel in early 2013. And symbolically, he spoke last.

“As a region, we resolve to overwhelmingly support President Uhuru Kenyatta for his second term in the 2017 elections. In 2022, we shall honour the ‘Jubilee pact’ and support William Ruto for President. During the 2022 elections, we shall be fielding a candidate from our region to run for national office,” they say in a communique, a copy that is in our possession released after the meeting.

Prof Kindiki was in January installed as a Njuri Ncheke elder, a powerful socio-judicial and political outfit that holds immense sway in Meru politics.

Mr Murungi was equally assigned to help prevail on younger politicians from Central Kenya who may want to seek to be Mr Ruto’s running mate in 2022 to hold their horses and instead support Prof Kindiki.

The communique stated: “Any person or region in Kenya that wants to negotiate with us politically must henceforth negotiate with us as an indivisible bloc under one political leadership.”