Last week, Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition leader Raila Odinga unveiled a five-member team to represent the opposition in the bi-partisan talks with the Kenya Kwanza team.
It later emerged that none of the Azimio leaders from the vote-rich Mt Kenya region was picked for the peace talks with President William Ruto’s team.
Analysts and political observers then raised speculations that omitting the Mt Kenya region from the team would fuel division in the opposition camp, keeping in mind that the region produced Raila Odinga’s 2022 presidential running mate.
As such, senior leaders from the region held a private meeting on Thursday, August 3.
The meeting was chaired by Narc Kenya and Raila Odinga’s 2022 presidential running mate Martha Karua.
Others in the meeting are former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya, Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni, and former Laikipia Governor Nderitu Muriithi.
In a statement after the meeting, Karua only described the meeting as a consultative meeting.
“Consultative meeting with Kamwene leaders this morning,” Karua said in a Tweet.
On his part, the embattled Jubilee Secretary General wondered why the region was left out of the peace talks despite having been the liberators of the country’s independence.
“How many members of Mau Mau died for the liberation of our country? Kioni posed.
The meeting comes just days after Karua, a key player in opposition politics did not attend an Azimio la Umoja Parliamentary Group meeting convened by opposition leader Raila Odinga.
It further comes at a time when Raila Odinga’s ODM party members have been accusing the Kamwene group of not being helpful to the opposition during the hotly contested 2022 presidential election.
“The others are stressing ODM with lots of funny rendezvous while in the real sense, they wasted our votes, handed over power to someone they want us to call enemy but they call them “my President,” said Kileleshwa Ward MCA Robert Alai in reference to Martha Karua, Jeremiah Kioni and retired president Uhuru Kenyatta.
