President William Ruto’s five-day tour of the Mount Kenya region has sparked debate over his administration’s track record, with Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba openly questioning the impact of his government’s projects.
Set to visit Laikipia, Nyeri, Meru, Kirinyaga, Nyandarua, Murang’a, Embu, Tharaka-Nithi, and Kiambu, Ruto plans to commission completed projects, inspect ongoing ones, and launch new initiatives. The tour comes at a time when his leadership is facing growing scrutiny in the region, a key political stronghold.
Wamuchomba, however, claims the President is attempting to counter a growing perception that he has not fulfilled his promises. Speaking on Citizen TV’s Daybreak program, she argued that many of his pledges remain unfulfilled.
“He is coming to unjustify the perception people have of him—that he does not deliver on his promises, does not follow up on promises he initiates,” she said.
The MP took particular issue with Ruto’s Monday night interview with regional broadcasters, accusing him of misrepresenting facts.
“He said he has not completed the Nithi Bridge he promised he’d finish in 100 days because he had to consult KURA and KENHA. As the President, you cannot say you have been consulting your lieutenants, eight months later,” she argued.
Wamuchomba also dismissed Ruto’s claim that his administration had stabilized coffee prices through the Coffee Cherry Fund, saying the funds had not reached farmers.
“I was getting nauseated when the President was speaking. He cannot tell farmers he stabilised prices through the Coffee Cherry Fund, yet he knows very well he did not put the money in farmers’ accounts,” she stated.
She further alleged that only Ksh.2 billion of a Ksh.4 billion allocation had been released, with the rest being invested in Treasury bonds without consultation. Debts in the coffee sector, she said, remain unresolved despite Ruto’s claims that they had been cleared.
“The only waiver money I know about was to a coffee society in Mathira, but three months later, farmers were deducted for it. It was not a grant,” she added.
