NAIROBI,Kenya Sep 20 – From the traditional shrines of Meru to Nembure in Embu and, finally, Kirigiti in Kiambu, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki is attempting to change the way Mt Kenya speaks politically with elders at the centre of the operation. For several weeks, Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku carried an axe around Mt Kenya that he wielded it as a political metaphor, threatening to split the Mountain into East and West if leaders from the western counties refused to recognise Deputy President Kithure Kindiki as the region’s political spokesman and support President William Ruto. On Saturday, the axe was finally surrendered.At Kirigiti Stadium in Kiambu, elders from Mt Kenya East and West took the weapon from Ruku and handed him a flywhisk, directing him to preach reconciliation and unity instead. The axe had been used to dramatise the most contentious question to emerge in Mt Kenya politics ahead of the 2027 General Election,whether the region should remain a single political bloc or whether Mt Kenya East should chart a separate course from the West. Its return marked the latest turn in a campaign that has steadily shifted from splitting the Mountain to deciding who has the authority to speak for it. The elders meeting at Kirigiti endorsed the Deputy President as spokesman and representative of the wider Mt Kenya region, pledging to advance its interests an...
This page contains an attributed headline and the preview text supplied through the publisher’s RSS feed. Copyright in the original reporting belongs to Capital News.
