Sagana III: Why Ruto has abandoned the mountain
Today, President Uhuru Kenyatta is meeting a delegation from the Mt Kenya region at the Sagana State Lodge.
During the two-day convergence dubbed Sagana 3, the President is expected to get feedback from his home base on whether he measured up to their expectations during his ten-year tenure.
Most importantly, however, the outgoing President will be seeking to assure his people he has done what he needed to do to secure the community’s future.
And the timing seems targeted. The meeting happens at a time the lights seem to be dimming for Mt Kenya folk, or they may be already off.
The once resounding drums and pomp of numerous campaigns by Deputy President William Ruto have gradually gone quiet after a season of a ‘long-term’ relationship that seems to have encountered headwinds. Apparently, the relationship was one-sided.
Mt Kenya had imaginatively sealed its future through Ruto yet their ‘lover’ knew his heart and interest was elsewhere.
According to the Mountain their territory was well secured, only awaiting a pompous proposal to be accorded rights as ‘wife’ in the name of the running mate position.
However, this has not yet materialised. Neither disputing nor in agreement, the truth of the matter is that there is a new bromance between ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi and Deputy President William Ruto who seem to have formalised their relationship through the Kenya Kwanza Alliance.
The potential bride has been accorded all the pomp, colour and attention that any woman would desire. Coming in the name of an ‘Earthquake’, Mt Kenya seems to have been overshadowed having never been offered an opportunity for an alliance but only required to box its interests inside UDA.
Where is Mt Kenya in the Ruto-UDA equation? I ask. Where is Mt Kenya in the Kenya Kwanza Alliance? It is time for the region to wake up and smell the coffee, for they have for long refused to read the signs.
Several scenarios attest to this.
For starters, when it comes to their critical interest of resource allocation, I choose to remind the Mountain that Ruto was and still is against their economic growth.
The ‘One man, One Vote, One Shilling revenue allocation formula once brought Ruto and his Mt Kenya allies into conflict.
The formula emphasised population on computation of county resources as opposed to landmass as populous counties constantly grappled with limited funds.
And even though it was targeted at equitable sharing of resources, Ruto was outright against it for he knew his region is bound to lose out on revenue and benefit populous regions such as Mt Kenya where despite high productivity in the regions little seems to come back from county allocation.
This has limited attempts to alleviate poverty levels even as many of the social contracts continue remaining in a state of dysfunction.
Mt Kenya should no longer wait to confirm its replacement, for it has surely been replaced. The Kenya Kwanza Alliance did not waste a single minute in commencing campaigns and, therefore, the region should not waste another minute waiting for Ruto to address their interests. Otherwise, watch as Ruto embarks on replacing Mt Kenya voters with those of Western region.
By Selina Chiteri
- The writer is a communications consultant and graduate student in corporate communication
