Gatundu South Member of Parliament Moses Kuria has criticised lawmakers in Deputy President William Ruto’s ‘hustler’ brigade over what he termed as an attempt to return the country to the dark KANU-era of a one-party state.
In a hard-hitting statement on Saturday night, hours after a section of MPs drawn from 11 Mount Kenya counties declared their support for DP Ruto’s 2022 presidential bid, Kuria claimed that there was a deliberate attempt by the team to label all other parties as “regional, tribal or selfish”.
The over 40 MPs issued a press statement after a meeting in Aberdares, Laikipia County, on Saturday.
The Chama Cha Kazi (CCK) party leader dismissed attempts by the team to dwarf other parties saying UDA is not the only outfit in the hustler nation from the region.
“The truth of the matter is that the United Democratic Alliance which they purport to portray as the ONLY vehicle in the region is only one member of the Hustler Nation,” said Kuria.
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“Further, the Hustler Nation is and can not be owned by any particular individual as we started it all as a mass movement and an idea whose time has come.”
UDA, Kuria noted, had been hijacked by incumbent MPs keen to block free and fair nominations in the 2022 polls.
“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,” he added.
“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.”
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He claimed that the arrogance displayed by some of the MPs is not in any way different from what brought down the once-powerful ruling Jubilee party.
“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,” Kuria said.
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“I 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. I am not as young and vibrant today and I can not go back to the streets to fight for multi-partyism again. I can only guard what is there.”
Kuria, a once vocal member in the DP’s camp has over the recent past morphed into a critic after attempts by colleagues in the ‘Tanga Tanga’ camp to push him to fold his party and join UDA.
He recently joined other party leaders from the region Mwangi Kiunjuri (The Service Party) and Martha Karua (Narc Kenya) to push for the interest of the vote-rich region ahead of the next year’s election.
The leaders insist that presidential hopefuls must bargain with the local parties with a view of addressing the region’s needs.
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“The price of freedom is vigilance. We embrace and are all 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 cognisant that history is a terrible bed to sleep in yet it is a wonderful lesson to learn,” he added.
“It is this lesson that we 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.
“I look forward to working with like-minded colleagues in the Hustler Nation Movement to realistically uplift the lives of all hustlers.”
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