Although he started off as President William Ruto’s blue-eyed boy in Mt Kenya, the star of National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah is slowly fading in the region with each passing day.

Besides facing accusations that he used his position to influence allocation of more resources to his Kikuyu constituency, Ichung’wah is also in the eye of a storm for allegedly being used by some unnamed forces to fight other leaders from the region, in particular Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi.

For the better part of the two years that President Ruto has been in power, Ichung’wah has spent his time fighting Gachagua and Wamatangi, fuelling claims from his critics that he has concentrated his efforts on local politics at the expense of articulating the government’s policies and legislative agenda at the national level.

Unlike his predecessors Aden Duale and Amos Kimunya, who are said to have used the position to traverse the country pushing the agenda of the government of the day, Ichung’wah is accused by his critics of allegedly moving around “preaching hatred against his own people”.

’Full of himself’

One of Gachagua’s allies, Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga, accuses Ichung’wa of being full of himself and propagating lies that the DP had schemed to overthrow the government for political survival.

“He has allowed power to get into his head and joins a cabal of leaders who sing platitudes to the powers that be. They mistakenly believe that insulting the DP Gachagua would endear them [to voters], but unfortunately for them, the DP’s popularity is growing more,” Kahiga told People Daily.

Yesterday, Ichung’wah told People Daily that nothing would stop him from following the path he has chosen, unless President Ruto tells him otherwise.

“I call out evil when I see it and part of my work is to oversee the executive and Gachagua is not an exception, whether my critics like it or not,” he said.

Only last week, Ichung’wah earned the wrath of some Kiambu leaders with claims that he had convened and chaired a local leaders’ meeting to decide on the person to be nominated by President Ruto to replace Moses Kuria in the Cabinet.

Addressing his constituents on September 3, Ichung’wah claimed President Ruto consulted Mt Kenya MPs extensively which he used as a basis to flog Gachagua for angling for more Mt Kenya appointments.

“When President Ruto was making his new Cabinet, he called us MPs from Kiambu and asked us to go and find someone for the docket of Agriculture,” Ichung’wah said.

Unrealistic demands

The MP described Gachagua as an opportunist, accusing him of blackmailing President Ruto with unrealistic appointment demands and claiming the DP had failed in a role assigned him by the President to address challenges facing the coffee and tea sectors.

What seemed to irk the leaders more were Ichung’wah’s claims that Gachagua was part of a recent alleged scheme to overthrow President Ruto’s government and that the people of Mt Kenya were not as appreciative as their Nyanza counterparts despite having eight slots in the Cabinet.

“Let me tell you something – I’ve been speaking out, and I will continue to do so. I’ll expose those who tried to overthrow the government. They can’t scare me – do I look like someone who can be intimidated? When I spoke in Kisumu, they said I should come and repeat the same in Kiambu.” Ichung’wah claimed.

Without mincing his words, Ichung’wah went on: “ I told the President that he shouldn’t be forced to follow the agenda of someone pretending they can dictate the Kikuyu community.

“Are you ready to abandon the government like some people want? If we weren’t in government, would all the work we’re doing here be possible? … Do you want someone to shepherd the Kikuyus and tell you which path to follow?

“This individual wants to play the tribal card so that when he tells Ruto to jump, Ruto does so, while those in opposition are getting into government.”

But no sooner had the dust settled than several leaders from Kiambu and the rest of Mt Kenya dissociated themselves from the alleged meeting, and instead accused Inchung’wah of using the President’s name to gain political mileage.

Not consulted

First to throw a salvo at Ichung’wa was Kiambu Senator Karungo wa Thangwa, who went further to observe that even if he had been consulted, he would not have proposed the current CS as he neither knows him nor is familiar with his track record.

“As an MP representing Kiambu county as their senator, I want to clarify that I was not consulted in the selection of the new Cabinet secretary from our county, nor was I invited to participate in the process,” Thang’wa protested.

Combative Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba followed suit, challenging Ichung’wah to explain to Kenyan farmers why he has allegedly been sitting on a Coffee Bill since 2023 and what he has done to lower the cost of poultry feeds.

“The allegations by Hon Ichung’wah that he involved all MPs from Kiambu in selecting the new CS for agriculture to be appointed by the President is not factual,” stated Wamuchomba.

‘Skewed allocations’

She also claimed that there was skewed allocation of national government resources for development, questioning why Ichung’wa’s constituency received the lion’s share of money allocated for roads.

She wondered whether the resource-allocation formula was fair given that her constituency, which has over 104,000 registered voters got less than Ichungwah’s Kikuyu, which has 98,000 voters, for building and maintaining roads.

She referred to a 2023 Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) tender notice where Kikuyu received from the national kitty Sh1,456,000,000, which is about 94.4 percent of Kiambu county’s share of Sh1,541,890,000.

The Githunguri lawmaker claimed KeRRA allocated Kikuyu 63 percent of the total amount, which translates to Sh220 million of the total Sh350 million allocated to Kiambu’s 12 constituencies.

“Whereas I appreciate Kikuyu getting some development, we should be fair in sharing. If we are rewarding the number of votes, I think Githunguri had more loyal voters than Kikuyu by over 6,000 whom Ruto should reward,” Wamuchomba said.

Dubious tenders

For his part, Wamatangi linked the continuing onslaught against him from Ichung’wah and some MPs to his refusal to collude with them to loot the county’s coffers through dubious tenders and grab public land.

Some elected leaders, the governor said, had thought that following his win, he would accept their invitation to plot how to enrich themselves with public funds.

The county chief, who was Kiambu senator from 2013 to 2022, said after rejecting the “unholy alliance”, some leaders launched attacks on him that have put the county to public shame, including threats of impeachment, hoping he would soften his stance on safeguarding public resources.