Ruto, Gachagua unite to quell Mt Kenya rifts

But even as the two leaders called their troops to order, Nyeri Senator Wahome Wamatinga was at Inooro TV on Thursday where he maintained that if Mt Kenya region had its own political vehicle, most of the unfulfilled political promises would have been actualised.

"If we would only get the cancer hospital that we were promised in Nyeri by having our political vehicle, if we would only get Karemenu and Narumoru dams in Nyeri that have remained campaign pledges since the reign of Mwai Kibaki through our regional party then that is the direction we are supposed to take as a region," he said.

Wamatinga had even disclosed that they would demand the implementation of the promises contained in the economic blueprint documents that was birthed during the many economic forums at the campaign period.

The remarks, The Sunday Standard has learnt, angered the President, a move that informed the Deputy President to call Wamatinga to order.

Gachagua who attended a development tour in Meru alongside the President said "All UDA leaders should be careful with their utterances. I have seen some of these Senators get excited when they go on TV. They get lost and get into unnecessary issues like our Nyeri Senator today uttering useless things on TV after he became excited."

"National government programmes are handled by the president and he should have asked me about the national government programmes happening in Nyeri," he said.

Sources within President Ruto's circles have intimated that the simmering cold war over the matter was touching the President's nerves and as a result, a section of the leaders who have been vocal on the factions were summoned to Sagana State Lodge yesterday night.

"The emergence of political theories on who could be bankrolling Nyoro's faction: the 1992 political situation where sibling rivalry between Mt Kenya region counties over Mwai Kibaki and Kenneth Matiba forced the President and his Deputy to intervene," a source said.

But will the two leaders contain the already raging fire and how will the fight end, the political leaders and pundits differ on the matter with some saying with the two leaders coming in to fuel the fires, the debate will rest at that but others were sceptical.

According to Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba, the emergence of factions was not just a coincidence but 'somebody's political script to divide the region so that they do not speak in one voice.

"The scheme is to bankroll as many political voices so that leaders do not speak in one voice and so that they don't agitate for their economic rights and there are no signs of stopping the political fires," she opined.

Charles Njoroge, a political analyst said the supremacy battles would come to an end if the two leaders (Dr Ruto and Gachagua) ordered the propagators to stop the infighting.

Njoroge cited the tactics used by some leaders in Europe in the past to encourage competition between different State apparatuses that exposed part of his government to the throat of others.