Moses Kuria: This is Why I Fell Out with Uhuru

Gatundu South Member of Parliament Moses Kuria has disclosed the genesis of his fall out with President Kenyatta.

In an interview with Saturday Nation, Kuria gave an insight into what made him break ranks with Kenyatta. Kuria, a former staunch supporter of Kenyatta, has become a fierce critic of the President in the recent past.

To begin with, Kuria accused Kenyatta of allowing people he termed as “outsiders” to infiltrate the ruling Jubilee Party ahead of the 2017 elections. He alleged that the installation of these people was the beginning of the woes the governing party faces today.

"All of a sudden, the space was occupied by people from nowhere, who did not know why we wanted to win the election and what we wanted to do in government," Kuria stated.

Further to this, MP Kuria accused President Kenyatta’s relatives of funding his rivals in the race for Gatundu South parliamentary seat in the last election despite having a good track record.

"The year 2017 was difficult for me. First, forces I believe are from the president's closest relatives sponsored candidates against me in Gatundu South." 

"This is despite the fact that I had worked very hard to deliver to my people, lifting the place from near-total darkness to electrification, initiating a roads upgrade program and upgrading 75 percent of secondary schools to have boarding facilities," claimed Kuria.

"I'm not sure I have fully recovered from that treachery," he added.

In addition, Kuria claimed that he was sidelined following his speech in Thika on December 31st, 2018, where he accused Uhuru’s administration of starving the Mt. Kenya as far as development was concerned.

"When I persisted in asking these questions, the Mt Kenya governors convinced the president that I was a rabble-rouser inciting the people against him, at the behest of Deputy President William Ruto," Kuria stated.

"Rather than respond to the issues I was raising on the foreign-driven policies that were driving small traders to the point of committing suicide, the e-list cabal convinced the president I was the enemy and the problem," he added.

He also noted that Kenyatta’s March 2018 handshake with ODM leader Raila Odinga contributed to their fall out. "The narrative was very simple. Rather than explain to us and discuss the rationale behind the handshake, this cartel brought in the narrative that some of us were beneficiaries of the divisive politics of the past and therefore we could not support a process that ended the divisions," Kuria alleged.