Former Machakos senator Johnson Muthama revealed that his beef with Machakos governor Alfred Mutua has been going on for the last 10 years.
In an interview with KTN on Wednesday night, Muthama said that he will never share a podium with Mutua despite the fact that they are now supporting the same presidential candidate, DP William Ruto, in the coming general elections.
At the same time, Muthama noted that the bad blood(due to the leadership of Machakos) between them is what made Muthama, who was born and raised in Tala, Machakos, miss out on the unveiling of Mutua as a Kenya Kwanza Alliance member.
“Maendeleo Chap Chap can, through its entire team, campaign for Ruto as a presidential candidate and vote for him. They can campaign for me and vote for me. They can do whatever they want but for me to spend time with Mutua and appear in meetings today before he agrees to work with me and appear in all the political rallies in Machakos where he would stand and first ask for forgiveness for Machakos people and promise to them that when I become the governor of Machakos he is going to support me and look for how the money that was squandered that was meant for the Machakos people then am not ready to go with Mutua to campaign together,” Muthama said.
Muthama further noted that he only has a problem with Mutua and not his Maendeleo Chap Chap party or the other parties that recently joined UDA.
He also accused Mutua of making false promises to people since development projects in the county have stalled.
Muthama further said that he will only associate himself with Mutua if he retracts information he has been giving to the public.
The exact cause of the bitterness between Mutua and Muthama is however unclear but it seems that their disagreement began before they were elected to office. The two were elected as governor and senator respectively in the 2013 general elections under the Wiper Party ticket.
Just months after their elections, the two were already fighting over county projects. This saw Muthama move to court to file a petition that sought to stop any development projects from taking place on the land that had been set aside for Machakos city.
Responding to the petition, Mutua said that Muthama was just bound to frustrate his term in office while revealing that he was bitter because the Machakos governor refused to kneel before him and seek his permission before declaring his candidature for the 2013 general elections
“He told me at a function during the elections campaign period that he would never support my plans since I did not kneel down before him and seek his permission before declaring my candidature,” Mutua said at a function in November 2013.
Mutua accused Muthama of wanting to use the Machakos city project for his personal benefits and gains. He further called him out for inciting locals against development projects that had been initiated in the area. Muthama however threatened to sue him for defamation.
Mutua went ahead and bought space in a local daily in January 2015 to call upon Machakos locals to provide any information about corrupt members of the county government and included Muthama’s name on the list in the advertisement. This forced Muthama to head to court in February and sued the governor for defamation.
Later in 2015, two Machakos locals moved to court and sued Muthama for frustrating Mutua’s leadership by continuously making statements that were meant to incite Machakos locals against Mutua.
Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka intervened a number of times to solve the difference between the two leaders unsuccessfully.
Later that year, Mutua was accused by Wiper of associating himself with Maendeleo Chap Chap party which was supporting Jubilee’s reelection in the 2017 general elections.
Mutua was finally kicked out of Wiper and became a member of MCC in which he defended his seat with, in the 2017 election.
Muthama also fell out with Wiper leadership and decided to form UDA, currently being led by DP William Ruto. He is currently seeking to succeed Mutua on a UDA ticket.
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