President William Ruto’s senior adviser in the Council of Economic Advisors Moses Kuria warned the populous Mt Kenya that they risk political isolation by being locked out of national leadership if they don’t unite with other regions across the country.
The now restive larger Central Kenya region against Ruto’s leadership despite having overwhelmingly voted for the Kenya Kwanza administration in the 2022 presidential polls has showed open defiance against the government of the day.
This has been worsened by the impeachment push against the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua which has been largely interpreted as a political affront against the Mt Kenya region.
“If you isolate yourselves from other communities then national leadership will be very far away from you.” Kuria said while addressing a congregation of mourners today at Anglican Church Ngiriambu in Kirinyaga county during the funeral service for Philip Muriuki Ngari, the father of Health Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni.
Kuria was appointed to his current post after he was dropped from the cabinet following a sustained wave of the anti-government protests led by the youthful generation agitating for good governance and fight against corruption.
Kuria previously served as Public Service at Trade Cabinet Secretary separately during his tenure as a cabinet member for two years.
“You see what happened in the National Assembly during the impeachment of the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. It clearly demonstrated that our votes are very few and for us to succeed we must unite with other communities.” He said.
He told Mt Kenya leaders to stop misleading residents that they can go it alone and win politically.
“Our leaders should start doing winning mathematics and not losing ones and show the residents the right direction. We have been bragging that we have a tyranny of numbers but in Parliament during the impeachment you lost.” Kuria added.
He regretted that leaders from the region made the biggest mistake when they kept away from other ethnic groups and started talking about their unity alone.
“Let us not repeat the same mistake if we want to survive politically and remain at the national leadership.” He said.
The MP for Chuka Igamba Ng’ombe Patrick Munene admitted that the transition from National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to Social Health Authority (SHA) was experiencing challenges.
However, Munene who is also vice chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Health assured Kenyans that all will be well.
“We are in a difficult phase of transition and we ask Kenyans to be patient and support us.” He said.
Munene said SHA is a good system and assured Kenyans it will work.
On her part, Muthoni defended SHA system, saying it will help Kenyans access free medical care.
She asked Kenyans to continue registering in large numbers so as to benefit from the new medical system.