Murang’a county quickly turned into a battlefield shame on Friday after supporters of Jubilee Party’s Tangatanga and Kieleweke factions started fighting at a funeral.
A mass burial ceremony was being conducted for five family members who died in a road accident on the Wote-Machakos road on September 12.
The man and his wife, their child, a nephew and the man’s sister died at Kwangolia leaving Murang’a, especially the family in deep mourning.
But even the somber mood in the village did not stop the warring Jubilee Party politicians and their supporters from soiling the funeral grounds.
Trouble started brewing when Kangema MP Muturi Kigano of Kieleweke started to address the mourners and set the ground for heated politics at the event.
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Kieleweke backs the handshake of President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM’s Raila Odinga while Tangatanga, who are DP William Ruto’s allies, oppose it.
Kigano, in his speech, dismissed those opposing Kenyatta’s appeal to leaders to direct their energies to serve Kenyans and cease 2022 campaigns.
“There are people telling us they are political geniuses and offering us guidance on where to belong politically. We are educated and after we are through supporting the President to complete his tenure, we will converge in a political platform and decide on where to cast our votes,” the MP said.
On ending his speech, the lawmaker invited his Kiharu counterpart Ndindi Nyoro, who belongs to the Tangatanga faction of Jubilee, to the podium and this is where all hell broke loose.
Shame of 2022 politics started after former councillor Alex
Mbote interrupted Nyoro demanding that he apologises for his recent remarks against
supporters of the Kenyatta and Raila's handshake.
Mbote’s attempt to accost Nyoro was met with a strong resistance from
his aides as mourners competed in heckling based on the side they support.
Attempts by Senate Chief Whip Irungu Kang’ata and Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege to quell the kicks and blows proved futile.
Mourners, clergymen and other invited guests were forced to scamper for safety as things
got ugly as police intervened as the bodies were moved to their final resting
grounds.
This came only a week after the Kieleweke and Tangatanga sides faced off at the home of the grieving family as Kigano deliver Kenyatta’s cash donation.