Mt Kenya leaders: We will not let President Ruto humiliate DP Gachagua

President William Ruto (right) and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua. [File, Standard]

A section of leaders in the Mount Kenya region have said they will not sit back and watch Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua get humiliated

Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga led some 20 Members of Parliament and other leaders in condemning what they called an attempt to divide and antagonise the region and disrespect "their son".

Kahiga openly referenced the strained relationship between former president Uhuru Kenyatta and then Deputy William Ruto as being repeated in the Kenya Kwanza administration.

He said every indication was that President Ruto might be doing to Gachagua what was done unto him in the last regime.

"We watched as the president mistreated the DP in the last administration and we shall not stand by and allow you (President William Ruto) to repeat the same with our son Gachagua. We will not keep silent and allow the DP to be humiliated and mistreated while we watch," he warned. 

Kahiga said any attacks and efforts to undermine the DP are an attempt that would be considered an attack on the region and its voters. 

"Let me make it clear. There will be no compromise on how we shall be treated as a region. You supported the President in the campaigns against attacks against him when he was a DP. We are behind the DP and support President Ruto, but only through the DP, and there is no other way," he said. 

Kahiga said the region shall not be divided and must continue pushing the region's interests in one voice.  

Naivasha MP Jane Kihara said there was a plot to divide the Mt Kenya region and noted its unity was at risk from leaders not in support of their efforts to secure the Kenya Kwanza government.  

"There is a push to divide and separate us from the DP. I have been in politics for three terms, and I can tell you these are tactics to scatter the region," she said.  

She said the only way to overcome the campaigns to isolate the DP from his supporters was to remain united as a region.

But Gachagua called for calm and respect for elected leaders in the Mt Kenya region.

Speaking at the Endarasha Catholic Church in Nyeri County, during a fundraiser, the DP said he would not engage in political spats.  

"On the issues of politics, I will say nothing because I have become a man of few words. If you have followed my politics over the last ten months, you will notice that I talk less and do more," Gachagua said. 

In a show of support for the DP, over 20 MPs, and several MCAs from Nyeri, Laikipia, Nyandarua and Murang'a accompanied him at the fundraiser.