Senior Economic Advisor to President William Ruto, Moses Kuria, was on Saturday, November 23, heckled and chased away from a burial ceremony in Murang'a as the fallout of the impeachment of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua continues in Mt Kenya.
Kuria was met by an irate congregation at the funeral service of Mark Gicheru, a Member of the County Assembly (MCA) who recently passed away.
A video seen by Kenyans.co.ke shows the mourners reacting angrily to Kuria as he spoke at the late MCA’s funeral at Wangu Kiharu.
To quell the rising tensions, the priest presiding over the service resorted to leading a worship hymn. Despite this, the angry congregants could still be heard voicing their fury.
Kuria was seen left in a state of confusion as the scenario unfolded, resulting in his speech being cut short. Consequently, Kuria had to leave the podium to avoid further beratement from the congregants.
In a sign of defiance to the government, the crowd further expressed their frustrations by heckling a representative of Deputy President Kithure Kindiki off the stage. The representative was set to read a speech from Kindiki.
The clergy, clearly under pressure to control the situation, advised the representative to hand the speech to the family of the deceased MCA so as to manage affairs.
Over the past few months, the political landscape in Mt. Kenya has pointed to a region in limbo after the impeachment of former DP Rigathi Gachagua. During that period Kuria was vocal about Gachagua, voicing his criticism of the former second in command.
The government advisor faulted Gachagua for orchestrating a retrogressive narrative intended to alienate the Mt Kenya region from the rest of the country.
Kuria emphasized that the Mt Kenya region, despite being populous, could not succeed independently without the input of other regions particularly because Mt Kenya residents are mainly traders and thus heavily depend on the rest of Kenyans to purchase their products.
After his impeachment, Gachagua proceeded to take a humble tone but recently came out with a scathing attack on the government. On Wednesday, November 20, he took to social media to reveal details of alleged surveillance and intimidation by security agents in unmarked cars.
Gachagua went further to relate this alleged intimidation as similar to the one perpetrated during the Moi regime.
