Peter Munya and Kiraitu Murungi take war to Nakuru
Meru Governor Peter Munya (centre) after opening the Party of National Unity office in Nakuru on March 2, 2017. PNU is fighting for office space with Jubilee Party in Nairobi. PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Governor Peter Munya says Senator Kiraitu Murungi misled Uhuru Kenyatta into Jubilee Party merger.
- Senator Murungi hit out at small political groups defecting from Jubilee Party ahead of nominations.
Meru political rivals Peter Munya and Kiraitu Murungi took their war to Nakuru on Thursday where the governor told the senator to resign from politics "because he had misled President Uhuru Kenyatta into the Jubilee merger".
Mr Murungi, on the other hand, hit out at small parties defecting from Jubilee ahead of nominations, saying they were killing the party’s unity dreams.
“The people who are running away are not sure about themselves and they are killing Jubilee’s dream of having a great, unified national party that brings people of different tribes and religions together,” he said.
Mr Munya was in Nakuru to open PNU offices and Mr Murungi was speaking to Meru secondary school heads at their annual conference at Jarika hotel. Mr Munya addressed the principals on Wednesday.
The Meru governor said the Jubilee merger was a mistake and Mr Murungi should take responsibility since he had championed the dissolution of the 11 Jubilee affiliate parties to form Jubilee party, a move he says has since backfired.
He was referring to media reports that quoted Mr Murungi as having said the decision to fold up the small parties was ill-informed and untimely.
“The senator should take responsibility and retire from politics,” he said.
But Mr Murungi denied that he had said the merger decision was a mistake claiming he was misquoted. He denied the reports that quoted him as saying he was regretting the decision terming them malicious.
Mr Murungi and former Cabinet minister Noah Wekesa chaired the Jubilee steering committee that oversaw the merger of 11 parties.
On Wednesday Mr Munya told the Meru teachers that his PNU party has no intention of joining either Nasa or Jubilee.
Former party chairman Mr John Kamama who supported the Jubilee merger, however, dismissed Mr Munya’s chairmanship of the party saying there was a case pending case in court. Mr Kamama claimed Mr Munya was using force to run the office.
