Kirinyaga Governor Anne Mumbi Waiguru has disclosed President Uhuru Kenyatta's perceived mistakes that watered down his support in the Mt Kenya region.
Speaking on Monday, April 25, Waiguru pointed out Uhuru's systemic errors explaining that he buried his head into the Big Four Agenda and legacy projects, forgetting about the vote-rich region which supported his presidential bid overwhelmingly.
The former Devolution Cabinet Secretary explained that the blunder disconnected him with the people of Mt Kenya who voted him to last man in two successive presidential elections.
Waiguru opined that by the time he realised that his support in vote-rich region had dipped, it was too late with his Deputy William Ruto taking advantage of the situation and hiving off the region from the Head of State.
"Kenyatta spent a lot of time focusing on his legacy and thus disconnected from the ground and by the time he realized this it was too late. At the same time, the DP was ever-present on the ground," Waiguru stated.
Uhuru garnered almost 90 per cent of Mt Kenya votes during the 2013 and 2017 General Elections defeating ODM leader Raila Odinga in both contests.
She however hailed the Head of State for his development agenda in terms of infrastructure and the Big Four Agenda.
"I think President Uhuru has worked and has done fairly well in terms of delivering on development and infrastructure. He has also done well in his big four agenda although he hasn't completed it," the first-time governor stated.
On succession politics, Waiguru advised Raila to consider selling his agenda to the Mt Kenya region alone without the support of President Kenyatta. She argued that Uhuru's support is detrimental to Raila's presidential bid since most people consider him an imposed leader.
"I am not seeing Raila having an impact in the Mt. Kenya region. If I was Raila, I would opt to run without the obvious support of the President in order to win. Having the President is actually a disadvantage on his side," Waiguru made it clear.
"People are looking to choose the next leader. The candidate that the President has associated himself with, has been refused by the people of Mt. Kenya. They have said that they owe their duty to Ruto," she added.
Waiguru is one of the leaders from the Mt Kenya region seen as a potential running mate of DP Ruto in the August 9 General Election. However, the former Cabinet Secretary has maintained that she is keen to defend her Kirinyaga gubernatorial seat.
The battle for Kirinyaga is pitting, Waiguru against woman representative Wangui Ngirici who is running as an independent candidate after falling out with United Democratic Alliance (UDA) top leadership.
Narc Kenya party leader Martha Karua had also thrown her hat in the ring after unsuccessfully vying for the seat in 2017 and lost to Waiguru - a political outcome she contested to the Supreme Court.
However, Karua appears to be focused on national politics after joining the Azimio-OKA coalition, and receiving major backing to be Raila Odinga's running mate in the August polls.
