It's no longer business as usual, Uhuru told

By Gakuu Mathenge
gmathenge@standardmedia.co.ke
The Kikuyu leadership in the Rift Valley has told Uhuru Kenyatta he will not get their political support blindly in 2012.
It was no longer business as usual and switching political loyalty should not be ruled out, they said.
Voicing their political and economic marginalisation during President Kibaki’s rule for the first time, leaders demanded immediate action.
A meeting called by the Kikuyu Council of Elders to discuss peace and reconciliation in Central Rift turned into an audit of what Kibaki administration had done or failed to do for his key support blocs.
The meeting mandated Mr Uhuru to spearhead peace and reconciliation efforts between Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities in the Rift Valley to forestall a repeat of past ethnic violence. But the elders and MPs from Central Rift told Uhuru their support for his 2012 presidential, ambitions would have to be negotiated.
Those who spoke told Uhuru that Rift Valley voters will make a pre-election Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2012 before deciding who to vote for.
Kalenjin neighboursThe matter has been simmering underground but hardly vented in public.
They cited failure to tarmac Nanyuki-Rumuruti-Sipili and Rumuruti-Maralal roads. They said both President Kibaki and PM Raila Odinga had promised the roads would be tarmacked. They claimed failure to appoint Cabinet ministers and permanent secretaries from the region had compromised their peace making efforts with Kalenjin neighbours.
"Central Rift Valley gave President Kibaki almost one million votes in 2007. But we have no flag to show, even a dirty or a torn one. Does it mean we have not fathered or educated children capable of appointment as ministers and permanent secretaries? Why do we have to import ministers from Central Province to facilitate peace negotiations in Rift Valley," Kimani Ngunjiri, is reported to have said.
Subukia MP Nelson Gaichuhie, Assistant ministers Mwangi Kiunjuri, Nderitu Mureithi, Lee Karuri supported Mr Ngunjiri’s sentiments that Central Rift had been given a raw deal by the Kibaki administration.
"Key appointments are made with the warped assumption that a ministers from Murang’a, Nyeri and Kiambu will take care of their kin in the Rift Valley. But it is during last year’s Referendum that it emerged how under represented Kikuyus in the Rift Valley are in Government," said Mr Kiunjuri. The last Cabinet minister from the region was GG Kariuki. GG, as he was popularly known, was fired in 1983 after he fell out with former President Moi.
The sentiments mirror what veteran politician and author Koigi Wamwere has extensively written about. Mr Wamwere says the Kibaki administration practices Majimbo but denies it in public.
"Even when he received over one million votes from the Rift Valley in 2002 and 2007, he still cannot bring himself to appoint a Kikuyu minister from Rift Valley. Ministerial appointments go to the Kalenjin in Rift Valley, to Luhya in Western regardless of voter mix or numbers. This is a silent endorsement of Majimbo, a practical acknowledgement certain regions belong to certain ethnic groups," Koigi wrote.