Mt Kenya MPs allied to Deputy President William Ruto on Thursday, April 22, issued fresh demands to him ahead of the 2022 presidential election which they believe he will win.
Following a meeting at Kikuyu MP's Kimani Ichungwa's home, the lawmakers sought to re-negotiate their terms with the second in command.
They stated that the terms would centre around economic empowerment for people in the mountain and their political positions in government if he won the election.
"The negotiations will be divided into two parts, part 1 is the economic agenda and part 2 is the region's political interest," Kandara MP Alice Wahome said.
The MPs unanimously agreed that the DP had an admirable track record in his political journey and that that was why they were backing him for the 2022 general elections.
"For us we had to come up with some pre-qualifications and come up with the right person so that now we can say having identified you as a person, we want to go for a journey with, here are our demands," Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria stated.
"The economy of a country and destinies of nations are actually driven by the leader on the seat. You cannot ask the people on the back seat. Therefore, the reason why we are negotiating with the DP is because he has a good track record with his ministerial duties from Agriculture to Higher Education," Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro weighed in.
On the other hand, the Kieleweke faction, a group associated with President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga, indicated that the MPs had no mandate to negotiate for the Mt Kenya people.
They termed the move as disrespectful to the president.
"There are MPs who are criticising us for engaging the DP in our talks and we want to ask them why they are concerned. They said that Ruto will not be around in 2022, why are they concerned?" Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua posed.
The MPs stated that the government before and after the handshake was a different one, noting that the DP had been idle since and had a lot of unspent energy.
