• Clashes between Kieleweke and Tangatanga have divided Nyeri county and political leaders are being labelled as followers of one or the other.
• President can't call it his bedrock and has steered clear.
Power struggles, including physical clashes, between Kieleweke and Tangatanga factions have divide Nyeri county, President Uhuru Kenyatta's backyard.
Political leaders are being profiled as followers of either one or the other.
And President Kenyatta no longer can call it his bedrock.No trip to Central would be complete without a visit to Nyeri and that hasn't happened in a few months.
Tangatanga supports Deputy President William Ruto’s 2022 State House bid while Kieleweke opposes it.
Nyeri town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu is a member of Kielewek.
Governor Mutahi Kahiga, Rigathi Gachagua (Mathira), Rahab Mukami (woman representative), James Gichuhi (Tetu), Anthony Kiai (Mukurwe-ini) and are Tangatanga troops.
Of course, there are a number of leaders and many people who refuse to be drawn into the battle.
They are Deputy Governor Caroline Karugu, Senator Ephraim Maina, Kanini Kega (Kieni) and Gichuki Mugambi (Othaya).
The deep divisions are exhibited by if leaders attend and how they behave in meetings believed to be convened by pro-Kieleweke or pro-Tangatanga leaders.
For instance, during a visit by the Building Bridges Initiative team in Nyeri in June, all Tangatanga MPs
Only Kega and Wambugu showed up, both rooting for a hybrid system of governance.
When Interior CS Fred Matiang’i inspected development projects, only Governor Kahiga, his deputy, MPs Kega and Wambugu attended.
Gichuhi showed up but left after the CS commissioned a police post in his Tetu constituency.
Political differences are even degenerating into chaos at political meetings.
The turmoil has been blamed on Gachagua and Mukami on one side and Wambugu on the other.
Wambugu claims the DP and a CS have been supporting Gachagua, Mukami and MCAs to hire thugs to undermine him in his constituency.
Gachagua denied the allegations.
Wambugu also says police were recently bribed to throw out his supporters from an Inua Mama meeting, leaving behind his opponents.
On the other hand, Mukami and Gachagua accuse Wambugu of hiring youths to disrupt a meeting by CS Mwangi Kiunjuri in June and an Inua Mama meeting on Friday.
Wambugu says Kiunjutri is using government projects to campaign as he positions himself to succeed DP Ruto.
Kiunjuri recently declared he was aiming for a bigger seat.
But Nyeri political analyst Muriuki Mahugu says the politicians have adopted the trend of political and physical struggle for financial gain from their masters and political relevance in the future.
He says while Gachagua and Mukami are openly known to be campaigning for DP Ruto, Wambugu could be acting at the behest of an unknown person.
He calls their differences a "ripple effect of what is happening at the top" between Uhuru and Ruto.”
Wambugu is completely against Ruto's 2022 candidacy, Mahugu says. But Wambugu claims he differs with Tangatanga for campaigning prematurely against the wishes of the President who wants politicians to concentrate on development.
The three do not own this battle but are fighting other people’s wars and the real owners are the ones who stand to benefit, he adds.
Mugambi, unlike the others, has never been committed to any of the two. His constituency is the only one the DP has never set foot in to launch projects or attend fundraisers.
Asked by his constituents to declare his stand, Mugambi a student of former President Mwai Kibaki’s low-key style of politics, told them the two groups are amorphous and add no value to Wanjiku.
The two will not field any candidates in 2022 , he said.
During the chaotic meeting at Gatitu/Muruguru in June, Senator Maina was quick to criticise leaders from outside whom he accused of undermining local leaders and causing more divisions.
He was referring to Kiunjuri with whom he does not get along.
Nyeri speaker John Kaguchia says both sides have very hard-line positions and each side believes it will win in 2022.
Politicians are protecting their positions by hook or by rook and trying to pull the carpet out from under their rivals, he adds.
“One side is trying to see how it can sabotage the other quietly, while the other is sabotaging openly —but all that is unnecessary politics,” Kaguchia says.
He advises them to retreat to their constituencies, Parliament and to national platforms and serve Kenyans first.
Kachugia says the three leaders at the top have no differences and meet to talk regularly and the politics played on the ground are misleading the public about the trio.
Like Mahugu, he says l politicians just want to be at the centre of power in the future and call the shots on what happens where, the speaker says.
He observes that a good number of Nyeri people have ignored the noise and that is why politicians from both sides have to cough up a lot of money to pay them so things go their way and meetings are disrupted.
He says when it's normal for people to shout at each other, there will be very serious consequences for Nyeri as a county because it will spill over into other facets of life.
“People will assume it is okay to take the law into their own hands,” he adds.