Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta and deputy president William Ruto supporters on Sunday morning took to fist fights in a small church in Nyeri County.
According to a local paper, Dr Ruto and his Mt Kenya allies had been holding political talks in Nyeri since Friday, and the plan was to have him wind up his tour of Central Kenya region by attending a Sunday church service and addressing supporters in Kieni.
After trying two churches and being denied to hold prayers there, the Deputy President’s supporters settled for an iron sheet built church in the village,
Mbiriri Full Gospel Church, which accepted to host the DP and his allies.
It is believed that the Kieni MP and Kenyatta allied saw the move as an open taunt given the fact that the spearheader of organising the venue, Mr Gachagua, represents a neighbouring constituency.
“If you really wanted to worship with the DP why not go to a church in your own constituency? I believe the real motive was just to incite violence,” Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu said.
Initially DP supporters had organised Saturday evening to meet at Mbiriri grounds due to the big numbers but were intercepted by police and refused from proceeding.
As the church service got underway on Sunday, pockets of youths engaged in fist fights outside the church, with supporters of the Kieni MP being forcefully ejected from the grounds.
other allies of the president hit out at the DP and the church for disrespecting places of worship.
“The church is failing because they are selling the pulpit to be used to fan hatred and incite violence. We are pleading with the church and cautioning them to not allow politicians to desecrate places of worship,” quoted Mr Kega saying on local media.
William Ruto said that his priority is not political positions but to reach out to the people.
