Senate Majority Whip Irungu Kang'ata is a man on the crosshairs since a letter he had addressed to President Uhuru Kenyatta was allegedly leaked to the public on January 3, 2021.
However, new details have emerged, revealing that the Murang'a Senator had held a series of consultations that culminated in a secretive night meeting held at his Grogan home in Murang'a on New Year's eve.
Nation on January 7, 2021, reported that the meetings had been prompted by Jubilee Party and Governor Mwangi Waria's Civic Renewal Party (CRP) losses in a by-election held in Gaturi ward, Murang'a on December 15, 2020.
Kang'ata is said to have held a meeting on the night of December 31st in which he carefully vetted attendees. A source revealed that 24 people were present, 3 from each of the sub-counties. Strategists who have guided the Senator in his political career were also present.
The meeting was dominated by a popularity analysis of the Tanga Tanga and Kieleweke factions, after which Kang'ata was asked to chart a new political journey, starting with a candid report to President Kenyatta.
"He (Kang'ata) was told to tell the president that people were complaining of being forced into unpalatable political formations, was reeling under policy-driven business hardships and that generally, the president had become a stranger to them hence rebellion against him and his administration was at their peak," the source was quoted as saying.
In the course of the meeting, the delegates are said to have questioned Kang'ata's alliance with the Kieleweke faction. Joshua Kimani, who spoke to the publication revealed that the senator was informed of Tanga Tanga's popularity in the region.
"The senator urged us to be as truthful as possible with him because he wanted to ensure his 2022 contest for Murang'a governor would be premised on the political pulse of the county. We were all unanimous that, first, he was in the wrong wing of politics. We told him point-blank that how he was used by Kieleweke to de-whip Tanga Tanga loyalists had eroded his standing in Murang'a, and that, unless he remedied the situation, he was walking into his political gallows," Kimani was quoted as saying.
The Senate Chief Whip was advised that there was little chance that he would be elected Murang'a Governor in 2022, so long as he continued to associate himself with the Kieleweke faction aligned to President Kenyatta, ODM Leader Raila Odinga, and former presidential candidate Peter Kenneth.
Kang'ata prides himself in not having lost any election since joining politics in 2002, at a tender age of 21 years.
"We made our case very well and backed it with actual evidence that is in the public domain. We told Kang'ata that if the Kieleweke 2022 ticket was the one being sold by the Handshake team with Raila Odinga as President and Peter Kenneth as his running mate, then he had better kiss his Murang'a gubernatorial ambitions goodbye," Kimani added.
"As a Jubilee die-hard loyal to President Kenyatta, I saw it wise to collect that intelligence and compile it and bring it to the attention of the party and its leader," Kang'ata is quoted as saying when he revealed that the meeting at his home was heated.
The letter by Kang'ata to President Kenyatta was dated December 30, however, it has been established that it had been authored on December 31, 2020, before hitting the headlines on January 3, 2021.
Kang'ata informed the President of the political landscape in the Mount Kenya region with regard to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), and his findings rubbed off pro-BBI champions the wrong way.
In the letter, Kang'ata urged that the BBI consider adopting two pet lines - a consensus-oriented process that would see the referendum bear multiple questions- something that has through the course of the report been championed b Deputy President William Ruto.
Critics of the letter have since accused Kang'ata of playing sideshows and that he was rejoining Tanga Tanga.
Kang'ata attracted backlash from several quarters of the country's political sphere with leaders from ODM and Jubilee chastising him for his action. National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya on January 5, referred to Kang'ata as inexperienced and seeking attention.
A source revealed to the publication that the Murang'a Senator was rattled by Moses Kuria led People's Empowerment Party clinching the Gaturi Ward MCA seat, in Kiharu o December 15, and has since held consultative meetings.
"He started holding meetings on the ground. He would be in night meetings too and we became interested. He started asking around extensively about BBI and its chance, ratings of the President, Kenneth, Raila and DP Ruto.
"He was a man who was walking a defining journey and we are not at all surprised by this turn of events that have culminated in the explosive letter," the source is quoted as saying.
