‘Jubilee Gatanga Chapter’ Resolves To Engage Murang’a Leadership Head-on To Demand Action.

Opinion leaders from the vast Gatanga Constituency have put on notice Murang’a County Government led by Mwangi Wa-Iria and the area MP Dr. Humphrey Kimani Njuguna to either to fix the problems facing their constituents or soon face the wrath of a disillusioned electorate

Led by their interim chairperson Mr. Kennedy Wanyoike, the group whose members were drawn from all wards in Gatanga made a declaration that if the current leadership failed to respond to their petition, they would mobilise the residents to demonstrate against them and demand service delivery.

“We are going to petition both the county government and our area MP seeking for answers to the challenges and programmes falling within their dockets. This time we are not begging for the service. We are not begging for the completion of pending projects. We are demanding for them because it is our right as taxpayers,” said Wanyoike.

They said that as the consumers and the funders of these projects, they were not interested with the political or ideological differences by their leaders. All they were demanding for was service delivery regardless of whether the work was under the national or devolved government.

“We don’t care what project belongs to which government. If it is a road, all ‘Wanjiku’ wants is its completion,” he said.

He sighted road projects in both Mitumbiri and Kakuzi, Kirwara health Centre whose construction had stalled, Kinyangi and Gitiri Dispensaries which lack medical personnel,

Under what they refered to as “Gatanga-1 Declaration” the group resolved to go round collecting signatures from Gatanga residents that they will use to demand for quality service delivery within their constituency as well as demanding for an authentic public participation in the decision making of the issues that affected the county.

They declared that they would no longer keep quiet as public money was misappropriated, misused in ‘white elephants’ that were meant to benefit the implementers or sit down and watch elected leaders and their cronies use public funds in projects that were not a priority to the larger community.

Joseph Mwaniki, a member of this group, said that their caucus supported the development agenda of the Jubilee Government. It was for this reason, he said, that they had thought it wise to unite the people of Gatanga so as to build a united front that could be exploited to demand for substantial services and opportunities from both levels of government.

“Today, the 1^st day of May, we have resolved to stay united and use our unity to demand from the two levels of governments, what rightfully belongs to the people of Gatanga,” said Mwaniki.

Jubilee Gatanga Chapter was formed early this year as a WhatsApp group that was geared towards bringing together opinion leaders from the area that subscribed to the Jubilee Government ideologies. Their mission was to bring positive change to Gatanga politics and development.

The group is geared towards encouraging Gatanga people especially the youth to participate in political processes so as to raise a generation of transformative and value driven leaders. The initiative plans to engage the community in transformative political leadership and democratic governance. They plan to play a role in governance as well as creating awareness that will bring about a new political culture in Gatanga Constituency and Murang’a County in general.

Through various platforms such as the social media, they aim to mobilise their people and encourage them to take their rightful place in the development and political processes of their wards, constituency, county and the country.

Rifts among the leadership of Murang’a County has been evident that have even seen a section of MCAs moving a motion to impeach their governor. There has always been allegations of lack of accountability in the management and use of county resources.

Leaders from various quarters have kept on asking their political leaders to put aside their egos and agree to accommodate one another for the sake of their people. This initiative is seen as one way of creating a truce in the county that may result in moving it forward as regards to development projects.