By The Weekly Vision Reporter
A fresh political storm has erupted within the Mt Kenya region following controversial remarks by Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku, who has intensified calls for Mt Kenya East to chart its own political course, separate from Mt Kenya West. The remarks have drawn sharp criticism from within government, most prominently from Energy Principal Secretary Alex Wachira.
Speaking at a church service in Igembe Central, Meru County, on 13th June, Ruku argued that Mt Kenya East, comprising Meru, Embu and Tharaka-Nithi, had for years been politically overshadowed by leaders from Mt Kenya West, namely Kiambu, Murang’a, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Nyandarua and Laikipia. He said the region had played a significant role in the independence struggle under the Mau Mau movement but that this contribution had not been adequately recognised by its western neighbours.
Ruku went further, invoking ethnic distinction to make his case, telling the congregation: “Merus are not Kikuyus.” He linked his call directly to the succession contest within Kenya Kwanza, urging the region to back Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and declaring that the “mountain” should split if that support was not reciprocated.
The CS’s remarks were not an isolated outburst. According to regional reporting, he has raised the same call repeatedly in recent months, and it echoes an earlier proposal, reported in December, in which he suggested Mt Kenya East and Mt Kenya West adopt separate regional titles altogether.
The comments have widely been interpreted as advocating a political split within the traditionally influential Mt Kenya voting bloc, a bloc that has historically voted as a unit and drawn much of its national bargaining power from that unity.
Energy PS Alex Wachira became the first senior government official to publicly rebuke Ruku, cautioning him against rhetoric he said risked sowing discord between communities with shared history. Wachira countered Ruku’s narrative with a list of Mt Kenya East figures who held senior office under the late President Mwai Kibaki, including a Meru-born Head of Public Service, a Meru Finance Minister and a Meru Energy Minister, arguing the region had never lacked representation when the mountain stood together. He rejected the calls for separation “in broad daylight,” insisting Mt Kenya remains stronger united.
Other leaders have since weighed in. Former Kirinyaga Woman Representative Wangui Ngirici rejected calls to split the region into political blocs, arguing that Mt Kenya has historically drawn its strength from diversity within unity. Former Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi questioned Ruku’s standing to speak for the region at all, noting that Ruku served only two years as an elected MP before joining the Cabinet.
Former Igembe North MP Maoka Maore took a different line, arguing the underlying discontent driving opposition to the Ruto administration is economic rather than ethnic, and warned that framing it as a Mountain-versus-Mountain contest, particularly coming from a sitting Cabinet Secretary, risked being counterproductive.
The National Cohesion and Integration Commission has also weighed in, calling for restraint from political leaders and urging a return to issues-based politics rather than rhetoric built on ethnicity ahead of 2027.
Political analysts link the row to the wider succession battle between Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and his predecessor, Rigathi Gachagua, and see it as part of a broader contest for control of the Mt Kenya vote ahead of the 2027 General Election. The debate has fuelled questions over whether the once-unified Mt Kenya bloc is beginning to fracture along regional and political lines, even as senior figures within Kenya Kwanza publicly disagree over how the region should position itself.
Whether the controversy reshapes political alliances or proves a passing disagreement remains to be seen, but it has reignited debate over the future of Mt Kenya politics as the region confronts a more openly contested political landscape than it has known in recent elections.
