Kituyi: Uhuru, Raila hold key to power

Bungoma Deputy Governor Charles Ngome, Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana and Dr Mukhisa Kituyi during Kituyi's homecoming at Mbakalo Stadium yesterday. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

Former United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) boss Mukhisa Kituyi has urged leaders in Western to work with President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga to ascend to power.

Dr Kituyi also told off allies of Deputy President William Ruto, saying they were leading their people astray.

"In the current political dispensation, you need to embrace the Uhuru-Raila alliance to succeed. I ask my brothers who are headed the Sugoi direction to return home," he said during a home-coming rally at Mbakalu Stadium in Tongaren, Bungoma yesterday.

The former UNCTAD secretary-general had been put in a spot earlier in the week when listeners called local vernacular radio stations to ask whether he was Raila's project.

"It is said that Raila called us for lunch. No, in fact, it is Prof Kivutha Kibwana and I who invited Raila for lunch and not the other way round. He sat at the table as a Second Liberator in the spirit of liberating the nation and not as the ODM leader,” Kituyi said.

He was hosted by Kimilili MP Eseli Simiyu and accompanied by Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana, Bungoma Deputy Governor Charles Ngome and Saboti MP Caleb Amisi.

"We the Second Liberators have taken the back seat in the running of this nation but have realised that was a mistake. The nation is headed in the wrong direction and it is time to take control,” said Kituyi.

From left: Bungoma Deputy Governor Charles Ngome, Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana and Mukhisa Kituyi at Mbakalu Stadium in Bungoma yesterday. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

Prof Kibwana said Second Liberators were regrouping and would reveal their end game. "I knew him (Kituyi) when we were in the trenches fighting for the Second Liberation of the country and when we worked in former President Mwai Kibaki’s government where he emerged as a performing minister."

Ngome, who unsuccessfully vied for the Bungoma Senate seat in 2013,  encouraged Kituyi to venture in other parts of the country to increase his chances of becoming president.

"I have known Kituyi for a while and met him several times in his office in Geneva and in Tongaren busaa clubs. On this I can speak for him; he is bold enough to neutralise the rotten leadership," Amisi said.

Simiyu, who beat Kituyi for the Kimili seat in 2007, also pledged to support his candidature. "I have been with Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati and Kanduyi MP Wafula Wamunyinyi who have also pledged to work with our brother,” he said.