Two Nyeri leaders in the Tangatanga faction of Jubilee have denied colluding with Deputy President William Ruto to frustrate Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu's development agenda.
Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua and Rware MCA Paul Kanyari said the accusation by Wambugu was baseless and instead accused him of being obsessed with the DP and elevating himself to a standard he does not belong to.
“I don’t think the Deputy President is in his league. I am also very busy with serious things in Mathira. I have no time to even think about him,” Gachagua said.
Wambugu, who belongs to the Kieleweke faction, said he was aware that five MCAs from his constituency met the DP to plan how to "manage" him at the grassroots.
He wrote on his Facebook page, “Rumour has it that Deputy President William Ruto might have met the five elected Nyeri Town MCAs somewhere. ... maybe my colleague from Mathira chaperoned them there. We are also informed that their brief is to ‘manage’ me, mashinani.”
According to him, the DP met with the MCAs either on Wednesday or Thursday. “Well - am not sure how true this is but we will see how these guys behave in coming days and judge for ourselves.”
He said the MCAs' intention was to show that the projects he had initiated were the efforts of the county government. He cited the tarmacking of Nyeri County Referral Hospital- Kangemi road, Slaughterhouse road and Baden Powell road.
They are all under the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA).
Last Thursday, some MCAs attempted to disrupt a public participation meeting for the 600-metre Hospital–Kangemi road.
Wambugu said "they wanted to try and make yesterday’s (Thursday’s) event by KURA their first effort. They wanted to incite the public to refuse the road and instead demand the tarmacking of a much bigger road.”
The MCAs were Kanyari, Samuel Kariuki (Ruring’u), John Ndumia (Kamakwa) and Simon Muturi (Gatitu).
Wambugu said he is lobbying for the road to go past Kangemi to the Nyeri sewerage and beyond but will be done in bits.
“Unlike in other places, we have very few places in Nyeri town where you can build a two to six-kilometre tarmac road because most of them are either built and only need rehabilitation. A lot of roads are short,” he said.
The MP accused the county government of trying to own national government projects.
He promised to ensure that the public knows what the national government is doing. “I am one of those people who decided that we are going to be very strict in ensuring that people know what the national government is doing.”
Kanyari said no one was fighting Wambugu and denied meeting the DP.
He said all that they want is for the MP to lobby for bigger projects like other constituencies.
He accused Wambugu of engaging in politics at the expense of development.
