Vallerrie wrote:This would have been a very educative thread had it not gone all political.
Let me attempt to be educative. During the colonial period there were lots of okuyos who were taken from their "ancestral lands" to work in the settler farms in the Rift valley. Mostly from Murang'a and Kiambu to form the RV diaspora cousins. Now around the 1950's the colonial govt then decided to kick out rift valley squatters. When they came back to ancestral lands they found the lands had been grabbed. Other militant squatters were thrown to Nyeri. Lacking land jobs or skills this core of landless peasants became the maumau to fight for their land from the settlers and the locals.
The Kiambu guys did not support maumau for the simple reason being close to Nairobi they were really enjoying economic benefits. Most of the grabbing was done using the land courts so the system worked in their favour.
Murang'a guys because of being herded into colonial villages got together formed companies and adopted business and took over lower Nairobi and also banking/sacco business. Nyeri guys were left with only education to advance opportunities in life and were taken like the poor sons of maumau remnants.
These divisions are purely economic sibling rivalry which formed during the colonial period.
After independence to protect wealth kiambu got into govt. with the vow that the presidential motorcade would never cross the chania river. Of course the motorcade crossed the river when Kibaki won with Kiambu firmly backing Uhuru in 2002 and also 2005 referendum.
Kiambu is still benefiting from its close proximity to the city. With mess in the city the middle class has made kiambu towns the dormitory towns which has really brought economic benefits to the locals. They have felt the economic growth under Jubilee I would expect high voter participation.
Now Kiambu MPs have now attacked Muranga biasharas(interest rate capping) which has made the Muranga guys say they want PK as Nairobi governor to protect their business interests or else. Nyeri is bitter they have no cabinet secretary and don't feel the growth like in the Kibaki era so the voter apathy is there.
This just pure nonsense of the power elite. Kenya is just a family business and your votes are just shares in the company.