President William Ruto’s development tour of the Mt Kenya region hit a rough patch on Saturday after pockets of rowdy residents disrupted a rally in Githunguri, Kiambu County.
The incident unfolded when Kiambu Woman Representative Anne Wamuratha took the podium, only to be met with loud heckling from a section of the crowd.
The jeers forced Wamuratha to cut her remarks short, prompting President Ruto to intervene and call out the hecklers for their unruly behavior.
“Sasa nyinyi, nani aliwafunza kupigia watu makelele? Basi makelele sasa itoshe hapo,” the President said, questioning where the culture of shouting down leaders had emerged from.
(“Now you people, who taught you to heckle others? The noise should stop here.”)
This was not an isolated case during the president’s tour. Earlier in the week, Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wah encountered similar hostility during a rally in Ol Kalou, Nyandarua County.
Moments after ICT CS William Kabogo addressed the crowd, Ichung’wah was met with resistance, with some attendees openly rejecting his message and chanting over his speech.
Ichung’wah, attempting to stand his ground, fired back at the hecklers, saying, “No one sells me fear,” in the Kikuyu dialect.
However, the crowd’s resistance only grew louder, forcing him to abandon his address.
The incidents highlight a growing sense of restlessness among constituents as Ruto and his allies crisscross the region, possibly reflecting internal political tensions in the Mt Kenya region ahead of future political alignments.
