You are not Mt Kenya kingpin, Karua to Gachagua
You are not Mt Kenya kingpin, Karua to Gachagua
Political tensions within the United Opposition continue to escalate as People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua once again rejected the notion that former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua holds the title of Mt Kenya political kingpin.
Karua in an interview with Radio Maisha dismissed growing the position that Gachagua, who have become the face of the opposition and Mt Kenya rebellion, now commands the loyalty of the vote-rich central Kenya region.
Karua said that high visibility and frequent political tours do not amount to leadership or electoral authority.
“Alichaguliwa wapi? [Where was he elected?] It is not to say that the one who shouts the most owns the property. Even in a matatu, the conductor is more populors than the driver. No election has ever made any single person the kingpin. You may be heard. That does not mean you are the kingpin,” Karua said.
The PLP leader also added that former President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has also been taunted as the regional leader, is not the kingpin.
“Uhuru is a former president. It does not mean he is the kingpin” she said.
Pressed on whether any leader currently occupies the top political position in Mt Kenya, Karua insisted that no single individual can claim leadership over the entire voting bloc.
On her part she positioned herself as an independent political force in her own right, and among the leaders in the region.
“There are leaders, and I am one of them.”
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She added that even at the time Gachagua extended an olive branch, he did have much influence in Mt Kenya, and that he took advantage of a region that had already rebelled against the government.
The former Justice minister added that Gachagua’s current prominence owes more to timing and political realignment than to any organic grassroots mandate.
“Remember, before I came to an understanding with Gachagua, he did not have that voice,” she said. “He got it later because he was in UDA, and people had already left UDA. You cannot say that because he walks around a lot, he is the kingpin,” she said.
This is the second time Karua has publicly rejected Gachagua’s kingpin status, signaling growing friction within the opposition’s ranks.
In a previous interview in May, Karua dismissed Gachagua’s claims to regional dominance in Mt Kenya, stating that he is “not the Mt Kenya kingpin”.
Instead, she described the former deputy president as “just a party leader like me or Uhuru Kenyatta.”
“Mt Kenya people had already left the government while he was still deputy president. He found us here,” she said.
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