Kihika’s Nakuru grip tested as rivals circle, Gachagua looms

Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika at Kisima Farm, Njoro, in Nakuru County. on January 30

While differences with some local leaders have been brewing for months, a recent meeting led by Senate Majority Leader and Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot in Solai, Nakuru, triggered a harsh response from Kihika.

The governor accused Cheruiyot of ethnic mobilisation in Nakuru, a cosmopolitan county with a majority Kikuyu and Kalenjin population.

However, local MPs, mainly drawn from the Kalenjin community, defended the senator, saying the meeting focused on development interests affecting the community.

However, with Nakuru’s unique political character as a cosmopolitan county that also hosts Luo, Luhya and Kisii people, the county has historically made ethnic balancing a delicate undertaking for its politicians, an issue now emerging at the centre of the current row.

A close aide of Senator Cheruiyot told the Star that during the meeting, residents expressed disgruntlement with Kihika’s leadership, accusing her of marginalisation.

“It is unfair to term the meeting tribal and linked to politics, but the issues raised there were political in nature in the sense of where the community, the second in population, feels placed despite making her governor. They also spoke about bad roads.”

“And this goes back to just after the election. Her cabinet, which was challenged in court, was not balanced. Chief executives and chief officers were from one community, while the Kalenjin got very few. That’s where the trouble started,” the aide said.

What is likely to have annoyed Kihika, the source added, was the proposal by attendees to back Trade CS Lee Kinyanjui for governor, arguing he protected their interests.

“There is already a slogan across local Kalenjin stations, ‘Jibu ni Lee’. That’s where the problem is,” he added.

However, Kihika’s problems go beyond the standoff with Cheruiyot. She is facing opposition from some local legislators, led by Senator Tabitha Karanja, as well as an onslaught by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

Gachagua, the DCP leader, has announced a two-day tour of Nakuru county on February 27-28, despite what he has alleged to be threats by Kihika’s husband, Sam Mburu, not to step in the county.

Sources in DCP indicate that Gachagua is expected to back former NHIF chief executive Geoffrey Mwangi as the party’s preferred candidate for the Nakuru governor seat.

The decision is yet to be made as the party leader has insisted on primaries, the official said.

Gachagua’s interest in Nakuru is strategic, and he has been working with Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara, a veteran in Nakuru politics.

As he works to consolidate the Mt Kenya vote base, extending influence into cosmopolitan counties such as Laikipia and Nakuru, as well as the Maa region, allows him to project national reach, while chipping away at UDA strongholds.

Within UDA, two aspirants from the Kalenjin community, Hillary Kipngeno and Joseph Rotich, have already declared interest in challenging Kihika for the governor seat, presenting more trouble for her.

At home, Senator Karanja is said to be working closely with a group of current and former MPs in the county to remove Kihika over what the senator has alleged is mismanagement of county resources.