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Touted as President William Ruto’s voice in the central region Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wah has not only pulled guns on the national stage but has also recruited to his Kiambu county cocoon where he has been fighting local leaders.

The man who is the Majority Leader in the National Assembly is known for fighting everyone apart from himself. From retired President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kiambu Governor Kimani wa Wamatangi and Central MPs, Inchung’wah brooks no one.

This is unlike his predecessors such as Aden Duale who abandoned parochial politics to play on the national stage.

An economist with a Bachelor of Arts (Economics and History) from the University of Nairobi, Ichungwah who was elected the MP for Kikuyu Constituency in 2013, 2017 and 2022 is not a new political warlord – his pugnacious character taking root back in 2018 when his relationship with Uhuru went sour.

The two were embroiled in unending squabbles right after he reportedly made a contribution to the National Assembly regarding one of the lucrative businesses in the country, sentiments he once told a local newspaper did not sit well with the fourth Head of State.

Political loyalty

Ichung’wah-Uhuru’s sour relationship was made worse when he exhibited total political loyalty to then deputy President William Ruto who had turned into Kenyatta’s political nemesis in his (Ruto’s) ‘rushed’ bid to succeed him (Uhuru).

After all-out political exchanges between the two, Ichung’wah at some point blocked Uhuru on the phone and for more than three years, the two never spoke on the phone. “He has never tried to reach me using another line and I have never called him either,” Ichung’wah told a local daily a year ago.

The belligerent man who went to primary school between 1983 to 1990 at Kikuyu Township Primary before he transitioned to secondary school at Alliance High School between 1994 to 1991 cherishes public spats.

Wielding the power of a top ten most powerful person in the political hierarchy and being a close associate of President Ruto, Ichung’wah’s acrimonious fallout with everyone has also been evident in his home county. The third-term MP has been at the centre of political quarrels between a section of MPs in Kiambu and first-term governor Wamatangi.