NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 3 – Former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri says state operatives are scheming to cause divisions in the Mount Kenya to diminish chances of Deputy President William Ruto getting a significant amount of support from the region.
Kiunjuri, who heads The Service Party claims that all former National Super Alliance (NASA) principals presidential candidates are eyeing a Mount Kenya politician to deputize them in a bid to divide the bloc.
Kiunjuri claimed all former NASA principals will declare a run for the presidency, seek a Mount Kenya candidate and unite close to the election date.
“The end result will be dividing the votes among Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Deputy President William Ruto, ruining the latter’s chances of a first round win, to force a rerun,” he said during a church service.
He challenged the Mount Kenya residents to speak in one voice and vote for one presidential candidate in order to be kingmakers and not mere swing voters.
“There is a mission to ensure Mount Kenya votes are scattered and we will lose our respect, we should not be proud of themselves, we have numbers but in politics, they don’t matter unless there is unity in number,” Kiunjuri asserted.
ODM party leader Raila Odinga has made efforts to woo Mount Kenya voters through various visits to the region.
Other former NASA principals including Kenya African National Union (KANU) leader Gideon Moi have united under the One Kenya Alliance in order to solidify their support base.
Odinga has already unveiled his agenda for the country, to counter Deputy President William Ruto’s bottom-up economic model which has caused jitters among his competitors.
While attending a thanksgiving hosted by media mogul S.K Macharia in Gatanga Muranga County, he was warmly received in the region by key leaders who also openly endorsed his candidature in an apparent departure from the past when the region was deemed hostile to him.
President Uhuru Kenyatta loyalists in the Mt Kenya region proposed a coalition between Odinga’s traditional supporters and the president’s vote bastion that will front the ‘Handshake’ candidate to cement the 2018 political truce between the President and the opposition leader.