• Machakos governor says those who have done their part must make room for others.
• Accuses DP Ruto of loitering instead on focussing on development.
Image: CHARLES MGHENYI
Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua has called for a generational change in leadership.
On Tuesday, he urged young Kenyans to take over power in the 2022 election.
Mutua said it is time politicians who participated in the first and second liberation struggles quit active politics to make room for young leaders to steer Kenya to prosperity.
He said the first three presidents of Kenya; Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki were all part of the pre-Independence struggle.
He said NASA leader Raila Odinga and DP William Ruto have been part of politics since the early 1990s when the second liberation was born. The fourth President, Uhuru Kenyatta, also got into politics in the 1990s.
“I don't mean to say they have not done anything for this country, but we should now pass the leadership baton to the younger generation. It is time for a generational change in politics,” the Maendeleo Chap Chap leader said.
He spoke in Mombasa’ Sai Rock Hotel during the official opening of the conference of the Machakos chapter of the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads' Association.
"When you look at the big economies of the world like the United States, Canada and even France, they all have had generational change.”
Mutua said French President Emmanuel Macron took over the presidency aged 39 in May 2017, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took charge at 43 in 2015 and United States first black President Barack Obama was 47 when he got into the White House in 2009.
“The United States, which is the largest economy of this world at USD 19 trillion, with the biggest army in the world in terms of power and ability, with nuclear power, rockets that go to the moon, they gave their leadership to a 47-year-old called Barack Obama. But in Kenya, we have an older generation that still wants to compete with the younger people.”
Mutua has trained his eyes on the presidency and will give it a shot in 2022. He said the Tumechoka Brigade, which he has formed, is ready to transform the country.
In a thinly-veiled jab, Mutua accused Ruto of moving around the country without a clear focus of developing the nation. Ruto team is called the Tanga Tanga Movement, an unofficial name coined because of its non-stop countrywide rallies, meetings and tours every weekend. The term was first used by Uhuru in reference to the DP.
Mutua said leaders should be busy in the office developing development strategies.
“We need our leaders to sit down and plan ahead, not moving around the country. It is quite obvious that a candidate who is not always in class preparing for exams but is seen moving from one corner to another will fail miserably,” he said.