Mountain region’s unity, fate now in the hands of county leaders

The August 9 elections present a catch-22 moment for the Mt Kenya region. This is after the two leading presidential candidates – Dr William Ruto and Mr Raila Odinga – picked their running mates from the region earlier this week.

In previous multiparty elections, Mt Kenya people have been known to largely vote as a block.

This has come to mean that their leaders, despite their diverse opinions and the inevitable extreme competition at the local level, have spoken in unison regarding which political formation they supported at the national level, leading to what has come to be referred to as tyranny of numbers.

Both have an undeniably huge following in Mt Kenya. And now that Mt Kenya seems all set to produce a deputy president, the  question that now lingers on is: at what political cost?

For the political expediency of the two running mates, Mt Kenya unity has been threatened, the myth of tyranny of numbers debunked and the bargaining power that has been leveraged in the past sufficiently cut.

In the larger scheme of things, things might not be the same again for the Mountain. By design, political polarisation that would take decades to reverse might be unfolding   right before our very eyes.

As it is now, the political future of Mt Kenya is on the shoulders of devolved leadership. It is time to make devolution work in the 11 counties in the region by electing people who are capable of negotiating the region’s rightful share of resources.

For the two – Ms  Karua and Mr Gachagua – the train has left the station, and the Mt Kenya people must now train their focus on the county leadership.

The writer is a Risk and Insurance Consultant at Half-moon Africa Holdings