Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria has finally come out to confirm the fears of many stating that Mt. Kenya region will not support any ‘outsider in 2022.
The vocal legislature said that the region will field their own candidate in the 2022 general elections. Mt Kenya region is one of the regions with a rich vote basket and with Uhuru Kenyatta’s term coming to an end in 2022, the region is becoming a hotcake for every aspiring candidate.
Keria reiterated that Mt Kenya owes nobody any debts and it will field a candidate of its own to square it out in 2022, with other presidential contenders. Kuria has confirmed there are wider consultations between elected leaders from Mt Kenya region who sit both in the National Assembly and the Senate to identify a single candidate whom the region will rally behind in 2022.
Most Kenyans have always held the notion that Mt. Kenya region will never vote for any Presidential candidate apart from their own owing to the region’s voting patterns since the year 1992 to 2017 where they have always stood with their own.
”We are not going to let the presidency go, we can’t give out the loaves of bread and the bakery at the same time. We are deliberating on how to have our own to become the next president,” said MP Moses Kuria on Sunday.
The MP, accompanied by Kirinyaga Senator Charles Kibiru and Woman Representative, Wangui Ngirici, was speaking in Kirinyaga County at Kerugoya St. Thomas Anglican Cathedral said Mt Kenya leaders were very determined to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta when he retires.
The MP’s statement further complicates political arithmetic for DP William Ruto who has banked his hopes on the region to fully back him in 2022. This change of tune by Mt Kenya leaders is informed by the Ruto’s continuous defiance of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has constantly urged elected leaders to drop the 2022 talk and focus on serving the electorates.
However, Uhuru’s pleas have fallen into deaf ears as his deputy continues to trot the republic drumming up support for his 2022 bid.
This comes just days after Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua re-affirmed the region’s support to the Deputy President William Ruto criticizing some of the Jubilee and opposition legislatures for teaming up to sabotage Ruto’s 2022 Presidential ambitions.
Gachagua also alleged that Mr Odinga’s political truce with President Kenyatta had killed the peaceful co-existence among members of the Jubilee party.
So far, William Ruto still has the upper hand in the region with nearly all the MPs supporting his 2022 ambitions. Moses Kuria felt out with William Ruto in 2018 after allegedly being locked out of an important rift valley meeting chaired by Ruto at his Weston Hotel.