• Karua and Kioni have been holding strategy meetings ahead of May 17, alongside other leaders.
• They insist that the Mt Kenya region has been in a crisis over the last two years, and a solution needs to be found.
Image: RAILA ODINGA/X
In the early days of March, Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua and Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni announced the Limuru III conference would be held to iron out Mt Kenya issues.
The conference, according to the two would bring together over 10 political parties from the Mt Kenya region to discuss issues that afflict them, as a community.
While the conference was initially slated for April 19, the date was moved to May 17, 2024, and preparations for it are in high gear.
Karua and Kioni have been holding strategy meetings ahead of May 17, alongside other leaders.
They insist that the Mt Kenya region has been in a crisis over the last two years, and a solution needs to be found.
According to Karua, the Limuru meeting would provide a platform to discuss various socio-political issues affecting the community, emphasizing the constitutional right of people with common interests to convene.
“The Constitution allows people with common interests to come together. We are not different from other communities and we should join hands to deliberate on our future,” she said in March.
They have also called for unity as they forge this new path.
“I want to ask everyone, we meet Limuru III, on May 17, we discuss issues that concern the Mt Kenya region. We get to know where the problem is, and we know how we will bring back our people together. We protect ourselves, our people and our country,” Karua says in a video urging residents to show up.
However, this call has received opposition from a section of leaders allied to the government who claim that it is a gathering that promotes tribalism.
National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah on Sunday said such meetings belong to the past and have no future in Kenya.
He insisted that the politics of ethnicity and personalities ended with the 2022 elections.
“Limuru III talk belongs to the past. Ethnic bigotry has no place in our nation's future. Let's bury ethnic divisive politics and build a united, inclusive nation,” Ichung’wah said.
In an interview in March, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said that he had not received any invitation to the meeting.
"I have heard about the Limuru 3 meeting. Both Kioni and Karua haven’t reached out to me as the senior-most politician in the Mount Kenya region," Gachagua said.
"Being the regional leader, it falls upon me to convene such meetings. If they indeed have an agenda, my office doors are open, and they should feel free to reach out."
The Limuru III conference is believed to be Karua’s new strategy to regain influence in the Mt Kenya region.
The first Limuru meeting was held in March 1966.
It was called by founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who sought to pass measures to reduce the influence of radicals within Kanu, whom Jaramogi Oginga Odinga led.
The Limuru II conference was last held in March 2012, bringing together leaders from the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru communities.
From the gathering, former President Uhuru Kenyatta was handed the mantle of leadership to succeed former President Mwai Kibaki (late) as the region's leader.