The 582km Mau Mau Road is under construction in Mt Kenya in honour of Independence heroes.
The country’s single longest road since Independence is a stamp of the President’s efficiency in his backyard, his supporters say.
The thoroughfare, which runs through Meru, Embu, and Tharaka Nithi counties as well as Central Kenya, could undermine DP William Ruto’s bid to woo the region.
“Once completed, it will be possible for Kirinyaga dwellers to travel to Kisumu or Uganda without passing through Nairobi,” President Kenyatta recently said.
In January, President Kenyatta convened a crucial meeting to counter Ruto’s forays amidst concerns people’s livelihoods had collapsed under Jubilee.
The President’s grip on the region was at stake following a year-long hue and cry about low farm gate prices of milk as well as diminishing returns from the tea and coffee sectors.
Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, asserting a theory of "arrested development", led protests against what he called little development in the region.
Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang’ata, in a December 30, 2019, letter to the President, detailed how what he called lack of development eroded support for the Building Bridges Initiative.
Shortly after penning the letter, the Senator shifted to the DP's camp, reinforcing the perception he could have been a UDA agent in Jubilee.
It is argued that President Kenyatta’s perceived abandonment of his backyard then provided fertile ground for UDA's popularity to grow.
The DP Ruto’s outfit’s message is that the Jubilee administration has its priorities wrong on development in Mt Kenya.
However, during the recent Mashujaa Day fete, the President diffused the narrative that his administration had failed Mt Kenya, especially after his handshake with ODM chief Raila Odinga.
He said it was due to his team that the price of tea has increased by 42 per cent and cartels have been rooted out in the coffee sector.
“It is expected that our tea farmers will receive a healthy bonus at the end of June 2022, signalling a return to the good old days of ‘Chai Bora-Pesa Bora’,” the President said.
Coffee farmers in high-yielding areas, he added, were receiving more than Sh100 per kilogramme of coffee, up from Sh25 per kg in 2019.
He added that despite the duress and economic slump caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, his administration delivered the best prices compared with the Independence governments’ 50 shillings a kilo.
The President also expressed confidence the milk sector would get better with farm gate prices now at a high of Sh40 from a low of Sh27 last year.
The head of state also called rice one of the sectors his administration has dealt with, as well as massive investments in the health sector.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya is currently holding meetings with the region's cooperatives in a fresh reform agenda.
Political pundits hold that the benefits also could change Jubilee’s story in the region, and help defuse the 'neglect and inefficiency' narrative by Ruto and his allies.
Prof Macharia Munene says it is too early to tell whether the growing appreciation of Jubilee ventures would turn the tables against Ruto’s ‘hustler’ wave.
“The President has done a lot of work on infrastructure and visible development in some areas. This may have brought some positive impact. But it remains to be seen whether it has diminished the DP's perceived influence, the USIU don told the Star.
He argues the political situation is fluid so it is not easy to say who is winning the presidency or losing and the rallies and statements are yet to give a clear picture.
Prof Munene said the fact that the President is not a candidate has its own impact on how his administration’s projects would influence the people’s decision.
“If he was a candidate, we would be talking about something else. For now, it remains to be seen. We have eight months of political campaigning to see whether there will be a swing one way or another,” he said.
The damage that Kanu did in 24 years capped with the narrative that Mt Kenya is developed and should not receive any further attention can only be termed as economic genocide
“UDA is appearing to be a movement. Most people in UDA are Jubilee so unless there is a clear separation, it would be too early to put a stamp on it because the situation is very fluid,” Prof Munene added.
But the proponents of the 'arrested development' theory believe the region is yet to get its rightful share of the Jubilee spoils.
Kuria said most roads projects have stalled. as well as water, electricity and street lighting.
“Projects are announced and actually started but then they stall when contractors run out of cash for non-payments,” the Gatundu South MP said “We have almost 500 billion in infrastructure pending bills in Kenya. What do you expect?"
Kuria further argued that very little amounts of the Sh3 billion coffee cherry fund has been taken up by farmers, though he conceded that the milk sector has improved.
“Milk has improved. However, Sh3 billion has been idle for three financial years for inept implementation. For tea, we will wait and see after reforms,” he said.
Kangata said the Mt Kenya population might cite roads as evidence of concerns being partially addressed.
“…but their pockets remain empty. Tea and coffee reforms are yet to yield results. Unemployment rate is high,” he told the Star.
Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni, who is leaning towards the Kieleweke side, said the region still has a long way to go on development.
He said much as the President has put significant effort into works, the concerns in the region will need another 10 years for regions to reap benefits.
“The damage that Kanu did in 24 years capped with the narrative that Mt Kenya is developed and should not receive any further attention can only be termed as economic genocide,” the lawmaker said.
He blamed DP Ruto’s UDA side for denying the region Sh53.4 billion in benefits that would have accrued had the BBI process passed.
“That is another phase of economic genocide and we cannot forgive him (Ruto),” the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee chairman said.
But for Jubilee honchos, a lot has been put into the works to turn the fortunes of the Mt Kenya region, arguing that it is the message of the gains that is yet to be driven home.
In this regard, President Kenyatta’s allies are currently conducting a campaign to showcase the administration’s legacy projects.
Among the ventures being positioned as part of Jubilee benefits the expansion of the Sh15 billion Kenol-Sagana-Marua road, irrigation projects in Kirinyaga, and hospitals.
The development projects are spread across Jubilee-dominated counties among them Kiambu, Muranga, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Laikipia, Nyandarua, and Mt Kenya East.
The Jubilee honchos hailed the handshake as having given the President the conducive environment to deliver the projects, citing Ruto’s ‘early campaigns’ as a drawback.
Nyeri Central MP Ngunjiri Wambugu said it was fulfilling to see development projects delivered by Jubilee not only in Central but also across the country.
Watch this space. The NDC will be a major display of what the Uhuru-Raila alliance will look like.
(Edited by V. GrahamI)
