Wrangles threaten to break glue holding Central region together

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua lands in Embu ahead of the 34th ACK Diocesan Anniversary at Kigari Teachers Training College. [Murithi Mugo]

Between them, the two tiers of government have had 11 impeachment motions against the top honchos. Ten of these have involved governors and one, the deputy president. Of these, only three have been upheld by the Senate. 

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is expected to challenge his recent impeachment tomorrow and Thursday. Whether the Senate will uphold it or not, remains academic in the interim. However, the glee with which majority of MPs from Central Kenya, but more so Leader of Majority Kimani Ichung’wah, prosecuted the case against Gachagua baffled .

Ichung’wah’s reference to Gachagua as “a black man with a very black heart” is an insult to black people borne of self hate. Despite his exposure and education, Ichung’wah still holds onto the colonial fallacy that black is the badge of evil.

It was a farce later compounded by confusion when Ichung’wah referred to himself as “the son of the mountain” shortly after Gachagua wound up his submission, yet he had the audacity to brand Gachagua, an avowed son of the mountain, a tribalist. Such a clear lack of ideology in the national leadership is our undoing.

The Mt Kenya region takes the trophy for sponsoring the highest number of impeachments. Five of the governors and the deputy president who have been subjected to the indignity of impeachment come from the region. They are Ferdinand Waititu-Kiambu, Martin Wambora (Embu), Kawira Mwangaza (Meru), Mwangi wa Iria (Murang’a), Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga) and lately the deputy president.

The Mt Kenya leadership should sober up and interrogate what fuels the growing wave of hate, dislike and mistrust among them.

The wrangles in the region are orchestrated by belligerent members of county assemblies and Members of Parliament, some who don’t have the faintest clue what their responsibilities entail.

And speaking of the theatre of the absurd, councils of elders have been recruited into these senseless wars. For long, it was assumed Central Kenya had an unbreakable bond, but not anymore. 

Political maneuvering driven by base tribal instincts is at peak to break the Kikuyu hegemony and deny the community a chance to produce yet another president any time soon.

Those wielding the knife at the end of a successful hunt want to continue holding on to it to have the advantage of slicing off the juiciest part of the meat. Appointments in public offices mirror this national shame.

Despite being the second largest tribe in Kenya, the Luhya community has never been able to produce a president. Its leadership has often allowed itself to be manipulated, casting the rank and file adrift like a ship in the high seas whose captain has gone to sleep. Other communities must guard against such manipulative schemes. 

Once, powerful councils of elders were venerated in the Mt Kenya region and they lived up to their billing.

Unfortunately, the elders are no longer society’s respected patriarchs and protectors; they have abdicated their roles as cultural heads and become playthings for politicians who use the elders’ platforms to ascend to power or expand their political influences. On many occasions, we have seen factions of the elders’ councils crown this and that leader as the region’s mouthpiece, thus widening rifts. 

In part, the venom that the current crop of young leaders in Central Kenya directed at the Kenyatta family in the run up to the 2022 general elections can be put down to historical injustices, and there are many.

It is the same venom Gachagua spewed against President Uhuru Kenyatta before experiencing the Damascus moment, and has since expressed remorse. 

Mt Kenya’s Young Turks have become putty in the hands of individuals pushing a hidden agenda bouyed by greed and selfishness. Their boisterous exuberance will be their failure.

They cannot simultaneously speak against tribalism while also glorifying it. Look beyond the allure of power to determine what legacy you want to leave behind.