Meru leaders unite to block ‘outsider’ agenda, sue Jubilee

Meru politicians dance during a meeting on Saturday night where they agreed to unite and push for bigger allocations from the State. [PHOTO: PATRICK MUTHURI/STANDARD]

Meru; Kenya: In what could cause a major political upheaval, 80 elected Meru political leaders, including eight of the 10 MPs, the county senator and governor have announced that they may bar leaders from other parts of the country from addressing rallies in the area.

The leaders who have been at logger-heads with each other also unanimously resolved to bury the hatchet and work as a team.

Speaking after a seven-hour weekend meeting at a Meru hotel, the leaders unanimously agreed to ban all political leaders from other parts of the country from holding meetings and rallies in the county.
They said the previous divisions among them had given the Jubilee government an excuse to sideline the county in development projects.

ECONOMIC SABOTAGE

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The leaders said the move to unite will ensure they demand and get their rightful share of the national cake which they have been denied for a long time.
They accused the Jubilee government of taking advantage of the divisions among the county leaders to short-change them on several issues which they termed as economic sabotage despite the support  the Government got during the last general elections.

In order to keep the unity fire burning, the leaders formed an association dubbed “The Meru Political Leaders Forum” which will consult and make a decision before taking any political move.

Led by Senator Kiraitu Murungi, Governor Peter Munya and the Chairman of Meru Parliamentary group Mithika Linturi, the leaders said the  forum has been given various tasks including suing the Government for what they termed discrimination in building roads in the county.
They said the allocation of only eight kilometres of the tarmac to the entire county that has population of close to two million was wrong.

“This is a historic move for the Meru community and unity has been long overdue. We are disappointed by the 1.5Km of rural roads allocated to the county and soon we will sue the Government over the same,” Kiraitu said.
Kiraitu said the forum will take the Government to court in protest.