CS Ruku insists Mt. Kenya East shortchanged, justifies Push for Special Consideration

Appearing on Citizen TV's Monday Report, Ruku was responding to accusations from Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua's camp that he had been dispatched to split the mountain.

"I've not been sent by anybody to split the mountain, and I'm not splitting the mountain. I'm just speaking the realities of the mountain," Ruku said.

The Cabinet Secretary took aim at Gachagua, accusing the former Deputy President of political arrogance that he said had to stop.

"Gachagua is politically arrogant. And I've come out to tell him that his political arrogance has to stop, because we have unique challenges within the Mt. Kenya region," he said.

Ruku argued that despite the region backing every administration since independence, from Mwai Kibaki to Uhuru Kenyatta, development within it remained deeply uneven, with the eastern side of the mountain bearing the brunt of the neglect.

He said the disparities were laid bare in road infrastructure.

"Mount Kenya West has 77.7 percent of all the tarmac roads in the Mt. Kenya region, whereas the other side of the mountain has 22.7 percent," he said.

Drawing on his own experience, Ruku recalled that when he was elected to Parliament in 2002, the constituency he represented had just 37 kilometres of tarmac spread across an area of 871 square kilometres, which he offered as evidence of how far the eastern side had lagged.

He named Meru, Isiolo, Tharaka-Nithi, Embu and Kirinyaga among the counties he said carried unique challenges that required separate political negotiation to resolve.

"It's not about which counties on this side or the other side. It's that we have unique challenges which must be solved and negotiated differently, politically, for those challenges to be solved by an administration," he said.

Ruku said the Ruto administration was already moving to close the gap, pointing to what he described as an extensive pipeline of projects in Mt. Kenya East spanning roads, markets, electricity connections, water and last-mile connectivity, some of which he said had never been undertaken since independence.

Pressed on Gachagua's assertion that the mountain is one people with one leader, Ruku said he agreed the region was united in identity but disputed the claim of singular leadership, arguing that the former Deputy President had only won over a section of Mt. Kenya West.