Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru has advised President Uhuru Kenyatta that he can do better for the Mt. Kenya electorate.
Speaking during Citizen TV’s News Night show Tuesday, Waiguru noted that although the president had made significant strides in matters development and infrastructure, Central Kenya is still marred by the issues of youth unemployment and the collapse of the coffee farming sector.
Waiguru, while responding to claims by a section of Jubilee leaders that the president has neglected his own backyard, was quick to laud Uhuru for being instrumental in the rise of Kirinyaga County, through the construction of roads, dams, and education institutions.
“I think he could do better,” Waiguru, however, said.
“We need to come up with solutions to absorb the (high) number of youth who do not have jobs,” she continued, highlighting the issues that she feels the President has ignored in Mt. Kenya counties.
“We need to sit and think about it,” Waiguru continued, also expressing her concern over the state of the once vibrant coffee estates in Central Kenya.
“We have challenges to do with coffee, one our biggest earner in the region,” Waiguru lamented.
“That pains the farmers the most,” she said, noting that remedying that situation might take a long time.
She called upon the national government, Parliament and County Assemblies to create a harmonious relationship for the benefit of citizens at the grassroots.
Other ailing sectors that have been pinpointed by aggrieved Central Kenya leaders include dairy and poultry farming, issues they say has arisen out of the government’s laxity on protecting small scale farmers from unscrupulous business people, organizations, and trade blocs.