Nairobi Star (Nairobi)
Wambugu Kanyi/Francis Mureithi
10 November 2009
Nairobi — CENTRAL Kenya is planning to field its own presidential candidate in 2012.
The Gikuyu Embu and Meru Association, which brings together all communities with roots around Mt Kenya, says that it will Marshall its numbers to support its own candidate in the next election.
Gema patron and former Defence minister Njenga Karume announced over the weekend that the association will pick a candidate from the three communities to run for presidency in 2012.
"As for now, we don't have a presidential candidate. We shall sit down and appoint a visionary, a selfless and peace loving leader when the time comes just prior to the elections...a leader who will bring all Kenyans together, a leader who will unite all communities," said Karume.
Karume, a long time ally of President Kibaki, opposed suggestions that the community should support a candidate from outside the community when Kibaki retires.
He was speaking in Tetu constituency at the home of African Independent Pentecostal Church of Kenya Archbishop Baptista Mugecha during a funds drive.
The announcement coincided with a statement by Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta that it was time for Central Kenya to unite and back one presidential candidate for 2012.
"We can't win if we remain divided," Uhuru said during a visit in Sagana Catholic Parish in Kirinyaga West advising political leaders to forget party affiliations to support one presidential candidate.
Uhuru was in the home ground of former Justice minister Martha Karua who has already started her 2012 presidential campaigns.
There has been a strong groundswell of support for Uhuru as a presidential candidate in recent months and his supporters feel that after he supported Kibaki by joining the coalition last year, the region should reciprocate by supporting him when Kibaki retires.
Internal Security minister and PNU chairman George Saitoti, who represents a constituency in the Rift Valley, but who has roots in Mount Kenya, is also expected to stand for president in 2012.
Another long shot is presdiential son Jimmy Kibaki whose new organisation Simama Kenya intenbnds to push him as a presidentiual candidate.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, Agriculture minister William Ruto and Deputy Premier Musalia Mudavadi are also expected to contest the presidency.
Speaking in Tetu, the Gema patron said the three communities that make up Gema will have to sit down and come up with a presidential candidate who will face others in the next general elections.
While maintaining that Gema was a cultural association and non-political, Karume insisted that it was time the member communities supported a single presidential candidate.
In 2007 the bulk of the over three million votes won by President Kibaki came from the Gema community in and outside Central Province.
The controversial Kibaki victory, in which Raila also claimed victory, ignited a wave of violence mainly against Kikuyu, particularly in Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza provinces.
At the same function, Makadara MP Dick Wathika said the community had become too self-centred and should support a candidate from outside Central Province in 2012.
Subukia MP Nelson Gaichuhie said it was a good idea to support one candidate but it would be difficult to convince leaders were to sacrifice their political ambitions.
"The problem is that our leaders are high profile businessmen who have specific interests. It is one thing to say and another to do it," said the MP who represents a constituency in Rift Valley.
"Unity of the region is important all the time. Unfortunately some of those who call for this unity undermine others at the same time. Unless people are honest enough, the unity they are talking about may not be achieved," said the Gatanga MP and assistant Planning assistant minister Peter Kenneth.
Central Kenya MPs have recently been concentrating on getting their constituents to support the one-man-one-vote proposal in the ongoing boundaries review. They believe this will strengthen their position in Parliament and in the presidential election race.
Since 2003 Gema has tried to unite the community whenever there are issues of vital importance.
In June last year, the association was revamped in Meru during a meeting with more than 600 delegates including 20 sitting and former MPs.
Gema was originally set up a few years in the 1960s to help members buy land and resettle in different parts of Kenya, particularly in the Rift Valley.
It was disbanded in November 1978 by former President Moi who declared it and other similar ethnic associations a threat to national security.
Before the ban, Gema had become a formidable organisation and the launch pad into the political arena of many of its original founder members including the late Minister for Local Government Julius Kiano who. Kibaki was once the treasurer of Gema during his years as Minister of Finance.
The association became very active after 2003 and was particularly involved in organising meetings in the run-up to the referendum in 2005.
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