Battle to succeed Kibaki shapes up in Nyeri

By Moses Njagih

Political titans in Nyeri have intensified campaigns for various seats, even as the contest for Kibaki succession gains momentum.

Kibaki has for decades been the county’s political leader but his retirement after elections gives Nyeri – considered the bedrock of Mt Kenya politics – the perfect opportunity to pick his successor.

Nyeri has played a pivotal role in shaping politics in central Kenya and thus with Kibaki’s departure, local politicians are burning the midnight oil to claim leadership of the county.

The matter has dominated campaigns for the Governor and county positions, with aspirants urging the electorate to pick a leader capable of inheriting Kibaki’s political boots and one who can give the region political direction.

Despite dominating Mt Kenya region politics for several decades, Kibaki has failed to groom a successor well knowing he was heading for retirement, a fact that now leaves a void that the aspirants are seeking to fill.

Worse still, some of those angling for the position cannot express their ambition publicly fearing they would be considered to be fighting the President. Former Mathira MP Nderitu Gachagua and Assistant Minister Mwangi Kiunjuri suffered these accusations when they led campaigns for the Grand National Union (GNU) candidate in a civic by-election in Othaya against Kibaki’s PNU candidate.

Potential leader

“Kibaki is the cause of the gaping void that the county finds itself. He should have started grooming a potential leader the moment he ascended to the presidency since he knew he would be exiting the political field,” says an aspirant eyeing to be a governor.

The stakes are even higher given that Nyeri is considered to shape the politics of the surrounding counties of Kirinyaga, Nyandarua and Laikipia besides being a crucial cog of the larger central Kenya political wheel.

The county’s governor’s position is widely being viewed as the one to provide political headship given the executive powers the holder will wield.

Gachagua leads the pack of those eyeing the position. Apart from Gachagua, who is also the GNU Secretary General, others who have expressed interests in the position are Dr Thuo Mathenge who unsuccessfully contested the Nyeri Town seat in the last election and who is also the Secretary General of Saba-Saba Asili party.

Others are Dr Wahome Gakuru, a key member of the team driving Vision 2030 and Dr Mwangi Njururi. Gachagua argues political experience would be necessary for the holder of the position.

“By placing the position as a political seat to be filled in a competitive electoral process, the drafters of the Constitution knew it would be crucial that whoever clinches the slot must have the political capacity to steer the county,” said Gachagua.

He adds: “I feel the person who wins this position will be best placed to inherit Kibaki’s role as the political leader of the county”.

But another school of thought has it that it will be the senator who will be the county’s likely de-facto political leader, by virtue of the fact that he will be the legislative head, championing the county’s interests in the Senate.

Those eyeing the senator’s position are Mathira MP Ephraim Maina and former ministers Chris Murungaru and Mutahi Kagwe.

Murungaru and Kagwe served in the Kibaki administration and were the county’s key point men for the President during their time in the Cabinet.

But Maina has emerged as the key political figure in Kibaki’s second term in office, even overshadowing Special Programmes minister Esther Murugi in Nyeri County.

The Mathira MP also holds the influential position of the Chairman of the central Kenya MPs Forum, a position that has made him a key personality in the Kibaki succession politics.

The MP is especially credited to have led in the fight for more administrative units in the county. He even moved to court to contest the distribution of the newly created electoral units.