Uhuru visit a bid to quell dissent in Meru region

President Uhuru Kenyatta heads to Meru this week in an attempt to pacify the region after a series of complaints of neglect even though he received overwhelming support in the 2013 General Election. 

It will be his first official visit to the county since he was elected and expectations are high as locals hope that the Head of State will address the myriad challenges they face. 

Compared to his predecessor Mwai Kibaki, who rewarded them with plum government positions and mega-projects, Meru politicians accuse Mr Kenyatta of not reciprocating in kind the support they gave him. 

Mr Kenyatta got a total of 384,290 votes from the 487, 265 registered voters from the nine sub-counties in the region that has a population of about 1.3 million people. 

But Meru Women Representative Florence Kajuju said the President’s visit is timely.  

“He will be visiting to say thank you to the Meru people for voting for him and to also fulfil the developmental pledges he made during the campaign period,” she told the Sunday Nation.

The trip is also seen by observers as meant to send a message to Deputy President William Ruto’s camp that Meru is still under his lock and key. 

SILENT CONCERN

There has been a silent concern within the TNA wing of government over Mr Ruto’s numerous trips to Meru in the last two years, a concern anchored in the fear that he could be seeking to wrest the region from Mr Kenyatta in the future. 

What has reinforced this concern is the recent declaration by the Meru elders — the Njuri Ncheke — that Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki will be Mr Ruto’s running mate in 2022.

“For a long time, we have supported our Central Kenya kinsmen for the top seat. We are asking them that when Ruto takes over the mantle from Uhuru in 2022, they should back Prof Kindiki to be his deputy,” Maara MP Kareke Mbiuki said. 

Last week, county political leaders led by Senator Kiraitu Murungi and Governor Peter Munya met Mr Kenyatta at his Harambee House office, a forum that paved the way for the visit. Observers say the President’s visit could also have been informed by the need to put an end to warring among Meru leaders.

There is a tussle between Prof Kindiki and Meru Governor Peter Munya over control of the Njuri Ncheke, the influential Ameru Council of Elders.

The coronation of the former as the community spokesman was the boiling point. The governor is not taking this lying down as the holder of such office will play a crucial role in the next polls. 

Senator Kindiki has increasingly become the blue-eyed boy of Mt Kenya East, pushing seasoned politicians like Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi to the periphery as he is now Mr Kenyatta’s right-hand man in the region.

During the two-day visit, the President is expected to deliver a basketful of goodies and commission projects, key among them the issuance of title deeds, to end long-standing land grievances especially in the Nyambene region.

Mr Kenyatta’s visit comes days after Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi was dropped as chairman of the Meru Parliamentary Group and replaced by Kathuri Murungi.

The vocal lawmaker has been a marked man for a while after he mooted a plan to impeach Devolution and National Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru last year. 

Last year, more than 80 elected leaders for the first time came together in a show of might and formed the Meru Political Leaders Forum and criticised the Jubilee leadership.

Mr Murungi’s Alliance Party of Kenya (APK) also accused Jubilee of short-changing it in the sharing of the Political Parties Fund allocations and threatened to leave the alliance.