Want our votes? Team up with Kithure, Nithi leaders tell Ruto

Deputy President William Ruto. (Photo:Standard/File)

By WAINAINA NDUNG’U

Tharaka Nithi, Kenya: Tharaka Nithi leaders have pledged to support Deputy President William Ruto for the presidency in 2023, but with Senate Majority leader Kithure Kindiki as his running mate.

Speaking at a rally in Maara constituency at the weekend, the leaders said they were looking at a fruitful relationship between the Deputy President and their Senator, which should culminate into a joint presidential ticket when President Uhuru Kenyatta retires.

Maara MP Kareke Mbiuki opened the debate shortly after introducing the more than 10 MPs attending the rally.

Mbiuki told the rally: “We must be very wise and start planning early for the next dispensation.”

Governor Mbae Ragwa also weighed in, saying while the area pledged to co-operate with the UhuRuto government for 10 years, it needed to position itself for the running mate’s position in 2023.

“2023 will be the year of Tharaka Nithi and that is when we shall part with our brothers in Central Kenya if they do not support this winning ticket,” said Deputy Governor Eliud Mate. Ragwa who called Kindiki to the podium, introduced him as Ruto’s deputy president in 2023.

Kindiki hailed the unity in the county saying unlike other areas the leaders were working harmoniously to develop an area that had been marginalised in the past.

But even as the leaders spoke of their 10-year dream, it appeared as a thinly disguised continuation of supremacy politics in the larger Meru region pitting Kindiki and Meru Senator and Alliance Party of Kenya leader Kiraitu Murungi.

Kiraitu, who was in the meeting with his party vice-chairman Lenny Kivuti, was earlier accused by Mbiuki of blocking road projects in Maara Constituency.

Mbiuki alleged that Kiraitu had used his influence to block construction of the Chuka-Chogoria-Weru Tea Factory road.

But Kiraitu denied the accusation and instead accused Mbiuki of carrying a petty grudge too far.

“I personally lobbied for construction of roads for his constituency when I was a Kibaki minister. I ensured electric power was taken everywhere in his constituency when I was Energy minister,” said Kiraitu.

He said his troubles with the MP were drawn from his unsuccessful attempts to lure him into the APK.

“It is true I wanted him to enter the “bus” but he insisted he wanted to get in with his chicken and we couldn’t agree,” said Murungi.

Five PhDs

He, however, wished Kithure best of luck in his desire to be the running mate in 2023, saying he was confident that Meru and he would personally benefit from such a posting.

He hailed the Senate Majority Leader as one of the brightest young politicians in the country adding that he came from a family that boasted of five PhDs.

Kivuti also supported the proposal, saying as chairman of Mt Kenya East parliamentary group they would support Kindiki to be Ruto’s running mate.

Murungi said he was a forward looking politician and he had accepted the fact that Kindiki had edged him out of the Senate Majority Leader’s race even after he (Murungi) sought the assistance of the president and his deputy.

“I want to tell my brother that what happened yesterday is history. Politics is what happens now and in future,” said the former minister.

Later, Kithure told the rally that he considered Mbiuki, a key ally and a discipline master in The National Alliance (TNA), and that he would personally support him against any attempts to undermine him.

But he also told the rally that he also respected Kiraitu as a senior leader and the two could not exchange insults even when they jostled for the Senate Majority Leader’s position.

Meanwhile, Governor Ragwa said earlier at a homecoming party of MP Beatrice Nkatha that Tharaka Nithi would resist any attempts to consolidate it with other counties because it had in the past been economically and politically marginalised.

Consolidation of counties is one of the cost cutting measures that the Jubilee government is considering to reduce the public wage bill.