Nyeri voters have been asked not to elect politicians who do not have any investments in the county.
Industrialist Thuo Mathenge said majority of those who are vying for various seats in Nyeri have no stake in the county.
He said voters should demand to be shown homes and investments by each candidate before supporting them and voting for them.
The businessman, who is vying for Nyeri governor, said some politicians own nothing in the county and that the people they seek to lead have invested more in Nyeri than them.
“These voters have cows, goats and chicken but some of these contestants don't even have a single coffee bush, tea bush, home or even a kiosk,” he said.
"It is unfortunate that such people propagate lies when seeking for votes but return to Nairobi among other places upon their election."
He advised voters to vote for those who live in Nyeri and have invested in the county.
Mathenge spoke on Friday when he took over 1,000 residents on a tour of his business empire in both Karicheni and Kiganjo areas in the county.
The tour was meant to inspire the residents, who were drawn from various self help groups from the eight subcounties, to invest in Nyeri.
They were also interested in learning about investment opportunities they can venture into such as poultry farming, pig rearing, bee keeping, dairy farming among others.
Mathenge, who is also the chairman of Brade Gate Industries, took them to his Brade Gate factory, Bantu Africa Resort among other business ventures he has invested in.
“This empowerment exercise will be an eye opener to them because there are some who did not know what to do with the money they borrow from women enterprise or youth fund,” he said.
“They have now learnt that they can use the little money to buy chicks and start poultry farming or even buy Unga at wholesale price and sell for profit.”
Mathenge said if elected governor in August, he will focus on value addition of farm produce to ensure farmers earn better returns from their farming activities.
He said the empowerment programme will be a continuous process where farmers will be touring his vast business empire to learn more about entrepreneurship, farming and value addition.
He said he will use his business acumen and experience to start such programmes in the county using public resources to provide employment for the youth.
"Starting industries and creating jobs is the surest way to fight insecurity," he said.
“What we need in Nyeri is not the construction of more police posts and deploying of police officers.We need to build industries that will create jobs for our people.”
Mathenge will be fighting it out for the governor’s seat with the incumbent Mutahi Kahiga (UDA), Senator Ephraim Maina (Jubilee), Gachara Kamanga (Independent) and Peter Munyiri of (Chama cha Kazi)
Mutahi Gachungi, who participated in the visit, said he was happy to learn many things from the farm saying they will work hard to follow Mathenge’s footsteps.
Hilda Wanjeru emphasised on the need to elect people investing in the area saying people who have not invested there will not do so even after being voted in.
(Edited by Francis Wadegu)
