President William Ruto pitched tent for days in Mt Kenya East region while on a working tour. Analysts claimed the head of state was on a mission to consolidate his support base amid disquiet in the region. What happened to Ruto in Meru Meru Senator Kathuri Murungi has recounted Ruto’s harrowing experience while traversing the county. Murungi revealed the president had a near-fatal accident after his car hit an imposing pothole in the middle of the road. The lawmaker explained that Ruto was lucky to be alive after the incident, arguing that had they travelling downhill then the vehicle would have flipped. “I felt so sorry for the president when I saw that his car had collided and its leg was torn. So, imagine if it had been downhill and had hit a leg, what would have happened to the head of state? That’s the problem I’m asking about. It’s fortunate that we were going uphill, so it hit and stopped there. But if we had been going downhill at the speed of the presidential motorcade, then we could be talking about other stories,” he stated. Who is to blame for poor road in Meru Murugi laid the blame squarely on the Kenya National Highways Authority (KenHa), questioning why they had failed to maintain the road. He maintained that the government had pumped a lot of resources to ensure the road was maintained, but they were not seeing the money being used. “Unfortunately, the road can be like this despite having a lot of money; we’ve allocated funds to the Kenya National Highways Authority (KenHa). We’ve given a lot of money for maintenance, but those people are using substandard materials, I don’t know who they are. Maybe if they’re awarding contracts to themselves, they shouldn’t use that money. Because we don’t understand why even local people here cannot get these small contracts for just filling,” he added. The lawmaker opined that because it was Ruto, his security team sorted out the situation, but a common mwananchi would have taken hours stuck in the middle of the road.
by Didacus Malowa