100 Members of Mutua’s Maendeleo Chap Chap decamped to Ruto UDA; President William Ruto (left) and Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti during the launch of Mavoko Water Supply project in Mavoko, Machakos County on April 14, 2023. PCS
President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua, among other leaders, will be in Machakos town for what has been termed “purely thanksgiving prayers”. But ahead of the visit, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua will be feeling emasculated after more than 100 politicians formerly belonging to Maendeleo Chap Chap (MCC) decamped to Dr Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
Worse still, it has become clear that Dr Mutua, who is associated with MCC, will play a peripheral role during the President’s visit. UDA politicians—led by Mwala MP Vincent Kawaya, who is the party’s organising secretary—will be the ones running the show. Ukambani UDA politicians have been in a vicious fight with their contemporaries in MCC, with each camp striving to show that it has the President’s ear.
Dr Ruto yesterday visited Machakos County to launch the Sh2.7 billion Mavoko water project, where he promised that the cost of maize flour will start coming down next week. “As we wait for the maize on the farms, I have made plans to import maize. The imports will be in the country by tomorrow.”
He urged the opposition to take advantage of the window of dialogue to address their grievances. At the same time, he sought to assure Kenyans that his administration will not discriminate against regions that did not vote for him.
“I want to assure you that we shall unite the Kenyan nation so that we forge ahead as one. There shall be no discrimination of any kind. We are done with politics. There shall be no ‘this or that’ political affiliation,” he told a roadside rally in Mavoko.
Politicians who defected from MCC to UDA earlier in the week were mainly aspirants who ran for governor, parliamentary and county assembly positions.
Leading the exodus was Ms Rita Ndunge, a key ally of Dr Mutua and the MCC candidate in the last general election, who emerged a respectable second in the race for the Machakos woman representative seat with 93,778 votes.
Ms Ndunge says the former MCC candidates chose to ditch their party to avoid being trapped in meaningless political factions within Kenya Kwanza and to foster unity in Ukambani and beyond.
“We were being shepherded towards a political direction that was not beneficial to anyone while being branded and negatively profiled as opponents of the President’s party when we are not,” she said.
She termed it wrong for MCC to stoke unnecessary political turf wars with UDA in a region that never voted for Dr Ruto in significant numbers. The defections were a huge blow to MCC, coming soon after it emerged that key figures in the party had been sidelined in planning the President’s tour. Mr Kawaya is in charge of the planning.
Signs that Dr Mutua and his group were sidelined emerged after Mr Gachagua met with Kenya Kwanza leaders from Ukambani except those aligned to MCC. The group, comprising Tourism Cabinet Secretary Peninah Malonza, principal secretaries, chief administrative secretaries and UDA politicians, was led by Mr Kawaya, who briefed Mr Gachagua on preparations for the prayer function.
On Wednesday, CS Mutua also met with his allies and received a report from a team he had tasked to list the projects in the three Ukambani counties to be presented to Dr Ruto for consideration.
By Kitavi Mutua & Pius Maundu
Source-https://nation.africa/
