‘Jubilee is coming back and it will be loud,’ former Water CS Sicily Kariuki says

Former Water Cabinet Secretary (CS) Sicily Kariuki has dismissed perceptions that the influence of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee party, in the Mt. Kenya region, has been thinning ahead of the August General Elections.

Kariuki on Wednesday threw herself into the political arena after resigning from her State position in line with a directive from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

She is seeking to contest for Nyandarua County’s governorship, under a Jubilee ticket, in a move that will pit her against the region’s incumbent governor Francis Kimemia.

According to Kariuki, President Kenyatta’s critiques and rivals will be in for a rude awakening once the Head of State hits the campaign trail in the region. The Head-of-State has recently hinted that he might play a role in the succession politics of Mt. Kenya, in the next six months, despite his imminent departure from office.

“The party leader has expressed himself loudly that you got to choose to politic from Monday through Sunday or do development and only do politics when the window for politics opens. He is coming back to do politics six months to the election,” Kariuki said in an interview with the Standard.

“He has been doing development for four and a half years. I really think that it is an attempt by the opposing side to create that impression. I would ask you to watch the space. The party is coming back and it will be loud.”

While reiterating that her decision to venture into politics was calculated and not made on a whim, the CS expressed optimism that she would win the Jubilee ticket ahead of the party’s nomination primaries.

“I am going there because I am going there. Remember there were options. Yesterday, I had offers from six different parties, but I am saying I have an idea where I want to be,” she said.

In the event that she clinches Nyandarua’s governorship at the polls, Kariuki says that she will borrow a leaf from Kitui governor Charity Ngilu and her Makueni, Mombasa and Meru counterparts Kivutha Kibwana, Hassan Joho and Kiraitu Murungi’s books, who she says have made significant strides in matters service delivery in their respective regions.

“I am privileged to have visited Kitui and known that we can have a cottage industry. Governor Charity Ngilu has done it using the same resources devolved to all the other counties. I can see what Makueni and Mombasa have become in terms of healthcare and what Governor Kiraitu Murungi has done in the provision of water. So I have an idea how it should be done,” she explained.

She likewise stated that she intends to revive the region’s agriculture sector by supporting the diversification and introduction of crops such as pyrethrum and avocadoes.

“The people (of Nyandarua) are hardworking, what they need is water, roads and links to credit and storage facilities,” said the former CS.