Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria has accused DP William Ruto of trying to take Kenya back to the dark days of Kanu era single party state.
Reacting to a meeting of Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) allied MPs held in Nanyuki on Saturday, Kuria said he would not allow the return of one party dictatorship.
The Ruto allied MPs said they would only work within UDA and dismissed Kuria’s party and that of Mwangi Kiunjuri as tribal and selfish.
Kuria and Kiunjuri have refused to fold their parties despite the pressure they are receiving from DP causing a major fallout in the tangatanga group.
After the Nanyuki meeting, Kuria hit back hard dismissing UDA as a regional party with a single MP and 2 MCAs with a collection of MPs whose only interest is to block their rivals from getting the party’s ticket.
“I note with concern attempts by the team of my fellow Mt Kenya MPs who met in Aberdares today to label all other parties as regional, tribal or selfish.” said Kuria.
He said Ruto cannot purport to own the hustler nation, since they all started it as mass movement.
“It is also a fact that UDA is perceived to be dominated by incumbent MPs who are hell bent to lock out their potential challengers out of the 2022 race,” said Kuria.
He said UDA as a party that has only 1 MP and 2 MCAs from Kiambu, Nyandarua and Nakuru can not claim to have bragging rights to brand all other parties as regional or tribal.
“This is the kind of hubris and chest thumping that destroyed the Jubilee Party which we formed with so much hope and enthusiasm. It is the clearest attempt to take us to the days of the one party state and the dark KANU era,” said Kuria.
He said he was in the clamour for multi-partyism and the second liberation alongside Hon Mwangi Kiunjuri and Hon Martha Karua, as a young and vibrant student leader at the University of Nairobi.
Kuria said he is not as young and vibrant today and can not go back to the streets to fight for multi-partyism again saying he will guard it is what is there.
He said the price of freedom is vigilance and would embrace all who are ready for team work, to work with everyone towards economic emancipation of all hustlers.
“But we can not afford to close our eyes and forget contemporary history, let alone missing to learn from it. We are cognizant that history is a terrible bed to sleep in yet it is a wonderful lesson to learn,” he said.
He said the country failed to learn from the warning signals of 1992 and 1997 that led this country to a near armageddon of 2007/2008.
“If we had learnt this lesson in 1992 and 1997, a child who was thrown from the bottom of a Church up a window on 30th December 2007 would have survived,” Kuria said
Kuria said he ready to work with like minded colleagues and that he was on a mission to defend our hard fought democratic gains.
“In this mission I have no space to retreat nor luxury to surrender,” he said.
He said UDA is not the only political party in the hustler nation family and that any other narrative is false, outdated and ill-intentioned
