Let Waiguru and Ngirici call off their dogs

Kirinyaga County must be one of the matters denying Deputy President William Ruto sleep. The top two politicians from the county, who both support his bid for State House in next year’s general election, are at each other’s throat.

Woman Representative Purity Ngirici and Governor Anne Waiguru don’t see eye to eye politically. During the DP’s visit to the county on Sunday, rival youths allied to either side put on an ugly show of animosity and political intolerance as they spoke.

Admittedly, Ngirici was one of the local strong foot soldiers for the then-nascent United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party. Then, most governors and other leaders from Mt Kenya, including Waiguru, supported the ‘Handshake’ and Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) of President Uhuru Kenyatts and Dr Ruto’s archrival Raila.

Fast-forward to October 26 and things became quite hot for Ngirici. She suddenly became the jealous ‘co-wife’ after her political nemesis joined UDA. The political rivalry took a personal turn and went a notch higher. Ngirici could not hide her displeasure with the defection. 

Fresh UDA convert Waiguru was at the EACC offices, being grilled over claims of graft in her government. But she downplayed that as witch-hunt, blaming it on her defection. Ngirici was quick to dismiss Waiguru’s self-defence as baseless, telling her to take responsibility for her actions — indicating that the governor was guilty as charged.

Politics of tolerance

One would expect that, the women being in the same political camp, they should defended each other. Now the DP has the tough task of toning down this animosity that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. Waiguru is keen on retaining her seat — unless she heeds her supporters’ calls to ascend to national politics, probably as the next DP. But Ngirici views Waiguru as a newcomer to ‘our’ party and is even more than fired up to unseat her. 

This is not a desirable display. The entire nation is watching. Kenyan politics have been known to severely polarise the country and, at times, lead to violence. In this era of, digital convenience, what happens in one part of the country is shortly seen and being discussed in other places. An entire country infected with such activity is an ugly imagination, given the aftermath of political tension in the past.

As the UDA leader, Dr Ruto should take it upon himself to reign in on his lieutenants to practise politics of tolerance and accommodation. But during the tour, he casually stated that whoever wins carries the day and the other will be accommodated in the larger ‘Hustler Nation’.

The best he can do is sit down competing UDA aspirants and make it clear that they must shun divisive politicking. Some of these acts appear motivated if not planned. The leaders should also reign in on their ground mobilisers to desist from inflammable acts and incitement. National peace is dependent on the path that leaders will show their supporters. The ball is in the leaders’ hands.

Mr Kwinga is a political scientist. skwinga@ gmail.com