Controversial Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria will on Sunday night trade punches with Anne Kiguta on K24’s Punchline show over various issues, among them the future of the ruling Jubilee Party, Mt Kenya politics and 2022 succession debate.
The two-term MP, who has declared that he will seek the presidency in 2022, has already warned Mt Kenya leaders against “blindly” following Deputy President (DP) William Ruto, saying it will be dangerous to the region’s political and economic future.
Kuria, who was once a die-hard backer of DP Ruto before he adopted an independent but controversial stance that has raffled feathers with both President Uhuru Kenyatta and DP’s supporters, said that Mt Kenya region needs to have its own political party.
The region, he said, must have a political vehicle for the 2022 General Election so that it can be a formidable force that commands respect.
Kuria said riding on other people’s parties is a dangerous move akin to going to a dowry payment while riding on the in-laws’ car.
“The Deputy President is my good friend but there is friendship and matters of the community. About friendship with him is a tick, but when it comes to issues of the community, I tell him hold on to let the community first deliberate,” he said in May, adding that his decision to vie for the presidency was prompted by disunity among Mt Kenya leaders.
Jubilee Party, which Dr Ruto banks on to propel him to State House, according to Kuria, is in the intensive care unit, and for Mt Kenya region to continue pegging their political future on it is a political miscalculation.
Recently, the outspoken legislator asked President Kenyatta to sack his entire Cabinet and “hire competent ones”, saying current members have failed him.
Kuria said Cabinet secretaries have not been telling the President the truth about the reality on the ground, accusing the CSs of lying to him that things are okay yet people are suffering.
The MP has also been protesting that the region— which is an agricultural zone with coffee, tea and dairy as some of its top products — has been neglected and continues to suffer due to high cost of farm inputs and poor markets.
Expand Executive
Regarding the call for a referendum, Kuria has been backing the proposal to expand of the Executive by creating the positions of a prime minister and two deputies as a way of ensuring inclusivity in government and to end political animosity witnessed after every General Election.
But the MP said that some of the proposed constitutional changes can be done through Parliament while the rest can be addressed through a referendum.
The Gatundu South MP proposes that the prime minister and his two deputies run on one ticket with the president and the president’s running mate.
