Kibwana opens new war with Kalonzo as Wiper postpones Makueni BBI rally

Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana (pictured) has accused Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka of hiding behind the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) to stoke political wars against him.

In what appears to be a renewed attack on Kalonzo, Prof Kibwana claimed that Makueni residents would rethink their support for Kalonzo "whose value for the region had drastically diminished".

In a terse statement released yesterday, Kibwana termed Kalonzo’s insistence on holding a BBI rally in Makueni County as a ploy to hoodwink the people of Ukambani.

“No BBI rally has been held in the name of any political party up to now. The authentic Ukambani BBI rally was held in Kitui where we read and presented our resolutions to the BBI task force,” Kibwana said.

Translated document

Kibwana said Makueni County had translated, for wide dissemination, the BBI summary into Kiswahili and Kamba languages, including a visual documentary in Kamba which has been used for civic education.

“The Wiper proposed rally is therefore a political event intended to disrupt ongoing countywide budget process and preparations for the annual devolution conference which will be hosted in Makueni next month,” he said.

Kibwana and his counterparts Alfred Mutua (Machakos) and Charity Ngilu (Kitui), at a joint press briefing in Machakos last month, declared they were focused on preparing the entire lower Eastern region to host the forthcoming national annual devolution conference.

National rallies

On Tuesday, Wiper allied MPs released a statement postponing the Makueni BBI rally, which was scheduled for today. 

“We wish to notify you that we are on course with our planned BBI rally in Wote. However, we must prepare our people for the rally adequately as well as harmonise with the scheduled national BBI rallies,” the statement read in part.

Senators Mutula Kilonzo Jnr (Makueni) and Enoch Wambua (Kitui) accused Kibwana of "an attempt to stifle freedom of assembly through issuing unwarranted threats against the proposed BBI rally in Makueni.

But Kibwana maintained that the planned rally was ill-timed.