Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri on Monday February 2024 clashed with Mt Kenya region leaders when he seemed to trash the unity calls by among other Deputy President Rigahti Gachagua.
The second in command has been calling for unity of purpose in Mt Kenya region for the Agikuyu community to regain its relevance in the national political discourse.
However, Kiunjuri, in a meeting presided over by Gachagua claimed the unity calls may lead to the region being isolated by other communities in the country politically.
According to Kiunjuri the regional leaders’ pursuit of unity should not lead to anxiety, tension and panic to the Agikuyu community as that would put the community at logger headers with the President.
“We can’t allow tension within ourselves because we are not asking to unite to create animosity between us and the other Kenyans. We must solve our issues behind the tent but we can’t come out clearly as if we are fighting the government of William Ruto. The way we are going, it is as if we have problems with the national government,” Kiunjuri said.
On Raila’s AU ambitions, Kiunjuri said ‘We should not fight him because he is not standing against our son, if it’s the issue of the national government, Gachagua talks to the President, if we cry in public meetings, shall present a scenario like Gachagua is not in good books with the President. When we are left alone we shall be isolated in the national political discourse,” he said.
But his sentiments were met with opposition by among others Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga who questioned why he was against Mt Kenya leaders uniting and speaking in one voice.
“When we say we want so speak in unity , we are not doing things out of context because Western and Nyanza regions are also also pursuing the same mission but when it comes to us that is where a line is drawn, our meeting is often misinterpreted to mean that is is wrong and should stop,” said Kahiga.
The second term governor went ahead to give an example of Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe’s novel When things fall apart that stresses the importance for leaders coming together.
He said ‘A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.”
While rubbishing Kiunjuri, Gachagua told off The Service Party (TSP) by saying he did not pay attention to the leaders’ unity calls, maintaining that their unity calls had no contradiction or conflict.
“What the leaders said is that the mountain should be united behind President William Ruto so there is no contradiction or conflict. The President got 87 per cent of Mt Kenya votes and now we want to look for the 13 per cent that went astray but we can’t do that when we divide the community. And we can’t allow it to be divided along the county lines. We are uniting people behind William Ruto and cementing our relevance towards the national political discourse because our strength is our unit,” Gachagua said.