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Former Murang’a Governor Mwangi Wa Iria yesterday accused Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua of abandoning Mt Kenya’s economic development plan.

Wa Iria, who has declared interest to serve as the vote-rich region’s kingpin, says Gachagua misled the Kikuyu community when he declined to lead other leaders to sign an economic plan agreement with then UDA presidential candidate William Ruto.

The former governor told the media in Thika that during the campaign period, the leaders collected views from the people on the things they would like the government to do but did not formally present the proposals to Ruto.

He said that while other communities presented their wishes from the government which Ruto signed for implementation, Central Kenya residents have nothing to claim because they signed nothing.

“The residents were given many promises of the things they would get for supporting the Kenya Kwanza government but they might end up getting nothing as the leaders who are supposed to have presented their wishes in writing failed to do so,” he said.

Insisting that the region had been getting a raw deal from the government they massively voted for, Wa Iria (pictured) accused leaders of advancing their interests at the expense of the people of the region.

“We demand to see the memorandum which the people had presented to the leaders and be told why it was not signed. The leaders only signed documents for their positions and forgot there was another agreement they were to present,” he added.

The governor said there was outcry from locals who had hoped that their interests would be catered for by the new government. 

He said, the minimum guarantee price for coffee, tea, milk among other products which come from the region were supposed to have been fixed in the agreement for the locals to get better returns.

 “This was the best opportunity to have this issue addressed but it appears like someone put the documents in his pocket,” he said.

 “I heard that someone said the Kikuyu leaders are trustworthy and thus there was no need to sign any agreement and this was the biggest undoing for our people,” said Wa Iria.

 The former governor also accused Gachagua of fuelling a war of words between the Luhya and Kikuyu communities.