The recent visit by President Ruto to the lungs of Mt Kenya to open a UDA office and to rally locals to join the party in large numbers needs to be critically dissected. It appeared like a campaign trail with Cabinet secretaries and politicians in tow.
It happened amidst the backdrop of coffee prices plummeting from a Sh100 per kilo to half of that while macadamia fruit is selling for less than Sh20 per kilo.
In the former regime, these products were fetched four times their current prices in the market and farmers had increased the acreage to grow them.
In the previous one-week tour last month, there was no mention of any action to revive coffee production or its improvement. It is anathema for the head of state to come back to rally people to join UDA when elections are long gone.
They handsomely cast their votes for him and it is his turn to return the favour through economic interventions.
Mt Kenya residents switch off from politics immediately elections are over to focus on business and view any political activity unrelated to elections as a major distraction to their economic life. This visit is a big miss considering the punch below the belt impacted by the unpopular finance bill.
The visit should have included measures meant to benefit Mt Kenya residents by guaranteeing better prices for coffee, tea, avocados and macadamia amongst many other economic activities.
This is a stark contrast to the visit by President Ruto in Western Kenya where he pierced through the cartel network bedeviling the sugar sector. The debts owed by cane farmers were cancelled and a huge chunk of money diverted to streamline that sector.
Meanwhile, coffee factories in Mt Kenya are almost winding up and risk being auctioned due to debts and embezzlement by cartels. One wonders why the ‘three option ultimatum’ was not issued in Mt Kenya.
Several polytechnics were upgraded to national level in Western while residents of Kangema have been apprehensive as to why Michuki Technical Institute has not been granted national status.
The political leaders from this region were present in body but absent in ideas on how to unlock the economic handcuffs of the populace.
The strong message that politicians need to understand is that political parties in Kenya are like a shopping basket, which is usually discarded once the contents are emptied.
With elections behind us, the government in power should spend less time moulding parties and more hours fastening the economy.
Moreover, political parties in Kenya belong to individuals and not members.