Ministers tell off GEMA critics

Written By:KNA,    Posted: Sat, Mar 31, 2012

Kiraitu said the meeting was meant to unite the communities ahead of polls.(file) Two cabinet ministers have defended recent GEMA meeting held at Limuru saying the new constitution provides for such kind of gatherings. Finance minister Njeru Githae and his Energy counterpart Kiraitu Murungi told off critics of the association, who are branding GEMA a tribal outfit . The two refuted said there agenda was to forge unity as a community ahead of the polls and not to antagonize anybody as claimed. They wondered why a section of leaders were unhappy with GEMA yet when other communities hold such a gathering no one raises a finger. Speaking at Egoji Teachers Training College the ministers said the Limuru meeting was just like a Luo, Kalenjin or Maasai gathering. "We held the meeting to forge unity of purpose as you all know that this is an election year and those aspiring for various leadership positions must strategize at this point and time, yet our meeting was dubbed tribal by those opposed to anything that we do as a community, " Kiraitu said. He said after the meeting he had received a lot of criticism from the political divide including some leaders right at his back yard. Kiraitu said instead of the bashing critics of the GEMA meeting should focus on the many national issues that require remedial action. He said as long as such a community gathering was for the good of its members and not antagonizing others then no one should condemn those who convened or attended the Limuru meeting. "We did not go to Limuru to promote ethnicity as erroneously portrayed by our detractors but rather we wanted to unify the community so that its leaders do not get fragmented by political parties as happened in 2007," he said. On his   part, Githae told the gathering the meeting addressed issues like alcoholism which has threatened to wipe out a whole generation in the region. "We also expressed our deep concern over the continued battering of men by their wives within the Mt.Kenya region community yet no one captured this as they criticized us," he said.