Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, Narc Kenya Party Leader Martha Karua and her TSP colleague Mwangi Kiunjuri coming together proved a critical turn in the succession politics of Mt. Kenya and the national representation.
The event saw an announcement of an inter-party league at a presser to represent Mount Kenya interest come 2022. The central region's succession politics has been a core discussion.
Different party members from the central region are trying to reposition themselves and become ideal to the Central region as recently seen in Mt Kenya east.
In order to understand the impact of the caucusing, one ought to understand the background of the succession politics in Kenya, the election pattern of the region.
At the presser, it became apparent that Karua, Kuria and Kiunjuri were keen on retaining their respective parties.
Indded, Kiunjuri reiterated that his party, TSP, would be on the ballot.
Lessons have been learnt on the merging of political parties into a common coalition with the latest being the NASA divorce.
The recent development was aimed at fielding a middle point man to represent Mt. Kenya's interest in the next regime.
The grooming of a successor has been a common scenario among previous regimes. The most remembered occurrence was the grooming of Uhuru Kenyatta to become President Daniel Moi’s successor.
Kimani Ichung’wah, while speaking to Kenyans.co.ke mentioned that the succession politics had been tried by various presidents and the current succession project by Uhuruwould be a failure.
Dr Sammy Mwangi, the political science lecturer at Karatina University, described to Kenyans.co.ke that Kenyan politics tend to be very unpredictable. The impact of the recent development could well be determined three months before the election.
Political Analyst Martin Andati described that the coming together of the three was meant to protect community interests.
This is a common factor in the political scene where individuals come together to have their community negotiations on the strongest field candidate.
Central Kenya has not always voted in one voice since the reintroduction of multipartism in 1992. During the same year, Kenneth Matiba and Mwai Kibaki ran for the presidency against Moi. Matiba took support from Kiambu and Murang’a region and the other regions voted for Kibaki
According to Dr Mwangi, the recent undertaking could be a repeat of history.
After the Moi’s era, the succession of the Rift Valley region saw Ruto becoming a self-made kingpin as there was no deliberate filing of a successor. The same has occurred Uhuru as there is no personalized grooming of Mt. Kenya successor.
Their coming of Kuria, Karua and Kiunjuri brings an influence into matters of succession. This will prove a critical matter to the influence of the presidential aspirants in wooing the whole of Mt.Kenya.
