Kiraitu and Munya’s bags of tricks exposed at Wamalwa’s tour

Water Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, North Imenti MP Rahim Dawood and Meru Woman rep Florence Kajuju, join in a jig at a fundraiser for Giaki Catholic Church in North Imenti, yesterday. Mr Wamalwa also brought donations from President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto. [Photo: PHARES MUTEMBEI/STANDARD]

Senator Kiraitu Murungi and Governor Peter  Munya are stopping at nothing to prove who calls the tune in Meru County, it would seem.

Water Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa may have underestimated the level of this rivalry when he toured the county a week ago, but the allies turned rivals were ready to wash their dirty linen in his presence if only to outdo each other.

The comical attempts to control Wamalwa’s programme during his three-day tour of the region came not long after Meru Senator Kiraitu’s announcement that he would challenge incumbent Munya for the governorship.

During the tour, the Kiraitu side protested  that the CS  had been “hijacked” by the governor when he paid him a courtesy call at midday on Friday.  They were unhappy that Wamalwa had been spirited off by helicopter to functions in Buuri and Tigania as the Senator’s team waited for him at the Meru Town Sewerage Treatment plant at Gakoromone. By the time Kiraitu’s team got wind of it, it was too late to catch up.

“The senator and the MPs are very bitter that the CS “agreed to be hijacked” by the governor when it was they who had lobbied the presidency for this visit,” said an insider in Kiraitu’s camp. The group now says Cabinet Secretaries visiting the region to assess Jubilee projects must publicise their programmes.

“The CSs should not let a Jubilee rebel gain undue  mileage from our efforts,” said Imenti Central MP Gideon Mwiti Irea, with a rider;    “We have seen many choppers.”

Courtesy call

The governor’s camp immediately hit back. It claimed Murungi’s team started the circus when it made off  with the CS and booked him at the Heritage Hotel in Nkubu, which is associated with the Senator, instead of Alba Hotel in Meru town as originally planned

 Tigania West MP David Kariithi accused Kiraitu’s ’s camp of seeking capitalise on the publicity  generated by the tour even though most of the projects Wamalwa was to tour were implemented by the county government. “Some of the projects the CS launched were already lined up for commissioning by the governor,” said Kariithi.

The MP said a visit by to the Meru Sewerage  Treatment, that had been planned by the Kiraitu team, would have been a waste of time as this was an old project developed by the county government much earlier.

“I am happy we were able to convince the CS to take the chopper and visit projects in Buuri and Tigania West which are quite far away and could not have been visited by road,” said Kareithi.

A helicopter was used primarily to save time and allow for a larger area to be toured, said Simon Kobia, the Director of Communication in the Governor’s Office.

On March 11, the CS started his tour at the proposed Thingithu dam in South Imenti which will serve residents of Nkubu, Mitunguu and neighbouring areas. He also inspected some projects in Imenti Central.

He then left with Senator Murungi, County MP Florence Kajuju, MPs Mwiti Irea  and Rahim Dawood for Meru town. But because members of the group did not all wish to accompany the CS to their rival  Munya’s office where he made a courtesy call, they opted to wait in Meru town with the intention of taking Wamalwa to the Meru Water and Sewerage Treatment Plant near Gakoromone market. Irea says they could not have anticipated how the governor would turn tables on them.

Munya had arrived from Nairobi on a helicopter hired by the Council of Governors, and once the CS finished with the courtesy call, he was informed that there was a helicopter waiting to fly him to some of the projects that were difficult to access by road. It has emerged that the Kiraitu group called an Assistant County Commissioner to try and get Wamalwa back to Gakoromone, but the governor’s team overheard the administrator making the request and quickly thwarted the effort.

Wamalwa used the helicopter to visit the proposed Kianjuri Dam in Buuri. Among those who missed the function was Buuri MP Gatobu Kinoti, who could not catch up with the team that was operating from the skies and arrived after the  helicopter had lifted off for Thangatha Dam.

Priority projects

With the exception of Kajuju who caught up with the team, the rest in the senator’s group were left behind  by the chopper hopping CS.

In the meantime, Kariithi, the only pro-Munya MP in the county, hogged the limelight by joining Munya and Wamalwa at every stop.

Things were to get more embarrassing that evening when Wamalwa went straight to Alba Hotel where he was joined by the governor  for dinner. In the meantime, the larger group of MPs led by the senator were waiting at Three Steers Hotel where a dinner table had been laid out for the CS.

An MP allied to Kiraitu told The Standard on Sunday that it was then that the CS was instructed by a top leader in Nairobi to abandon the Munya brigade and join the Kiraitu group at Kiringo Lodge in Igembe Central on Saturday.

The CS is said to have apologised for the mix-up and stayed with the Senator’s allies for the rest of the weekend.

It is not clear if this group was mollified, particularly as it chose to skip  a harambee at Giaki Catholic Church where Wamalwa brought  President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy William Ruto’s contribution

Wamalwa, however, went about his business unperturbed.

“The projects are a key priority for the Jubilee government and we want to implement them as soon as we can,” Wamalwa said while commissioning the Nkamathi borehole in Igembe North.

“As a matter of fact I am just a being a John the Baptist for President Uhuru and Deputy William Ruto who will soon be here to launch the major projects,” he added.