Uhuru pleads with Nyeri and Murang’a voters not to let him down

 

President Uhuru Kenyatta is received by Jubilee Party leaders in Nyeri County during his campaign tour yesterday. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday returned to his Nyeri and Murang’a strongholds and once again pleaded with residents to vote for him during the forthcoming elections.

Mr Kenyatta, who was on his second tour of the counties in a month, made stops in Mukurweini, Tetu, Othaya, Mathioya and Kangema constituencies in the two counties with a million registered voters.

In 2013, Uhuru bagged 98 per cent of the total votes cast in Nyeri with 318,880 votes while Opposition leader Raila Odinga managed 5,638. In Murang’a he polled 406,334 votes against Raila’s 10, 312.

With just 13 days to the elections, Uhuru urged each and every voter in the two counties to cast their ballot on August 8 with an eye on the 456,949 and 587,126 votes in Nyeri and Murang’a respectively.

The latest opinion polls put the two presidential candidates neck and neck.

“I am asking you to turn out in large numbers and vote us back because our goal is to have a united and developed country,” he said.

New mothers

Uhuru said he needed a further five years to complete his projects, citing his pledges to introduce free secondary education and medical cover for new mothers.

“Over the past four years, we have had a government that has been united and had no infighting. This has enabled us to lay the foundation for progress. We have increased access to electricity and built roads,” said the President.

Uhuru, who mostly spoke in Kikuyu, took time to discredit the candidature of the NASA presidential candidate, who he said offered no new solutions for the country.

He accused Raila of slowing down the country’s progress when he was Prime Minister in the Grand Coalition government due to infighting and bickering.

“I respect Raila like a brother but the truth is had it not been for him and the constant bickering, President Mwai Kibaki’s government would have implemented many projects,” Uhuru said.

He added: “Instead of bickering, he (Raila) should have used that time to work together with Kibaki and serve Kenyans.”

Further, he alleged, if elected, Raila would roll back the progress the country has made under his presidency.

Uhuru also called on Kenyans to remain peaceful and ignore attempts to create ethnic tensions, saying he was amused by Raila’s denial that he made inflammatory comments in Kajiado County.

He also laughed off comments allegedly made by Raila that he couldn’t fight corruption in the grand coalition government because his only duty was co-ordination.