By H.E. Anne Waiguru, CBS, Governor, Kirinyaga County
Today, the people of Ol Kalou go to the ballot to choose their next Member of Parliament.
I have spent my days among them—in their markets and shopping centres, on their unfinished roads, beside their water points and dispensaries. I did not go there to trade insults or to fight anyone. I went because I believe leadership is measured by the work you are willing to do for people, and by whether you show up when it matters.
Ol Kalou is not a stranger to me. It is part of the Mount Kenya family I have served all my public life, and it carries the same hopes and frustrations I hear across our region every single day. Families want tarmacked roads that survive the rains. Mothers want water that reaches the tap. Young people want bursaries, opportunities and a reason to stay and build their lives at home. These are not partisan demands. They are the ordinary, dignified expectations of Kenyans who simply want their leaders to deliver.
This by-election was called in painful circumstances, following the passing of Hon. David Kiaraho, who served this constituency for thirteen years. I did not campaign to erase his legacy but to protect it. Every road he began, every project he fought for, every promise still waiting to be fulfilled deserves a leader who understands the work and will finish it. Continuity is not a slogan to me. It is the difference between a project completed and a project abandoned.
I know that politics in our region has grown loud, and too often bitter. There are those who believe the way to win is to shout the loudest, to insult the most, to divide our people into camps. I do not accept that. I have chosen a different path—one of development first and drama never. I would rather be judged by a hospital that opens than by an insult that trends. Our people are tired of leaders who fight each other while the roads crumble beneath them.
So I stood with Ol Kalou to say, plainly, that development is delivered by those who work with the Government, not against it. When leaders and the national Government pull in the same direction, resources flow, projects move, and families feel the difference in their daily lives. That is the case I made, respectfully, to every voter I met—not with threats, but with a record and a promise.
I also stood for peace. I urged every voter, every agent and every candidate to keep this contest calm and orderly, and to respect the verdict of the people once it is delivered. Democracy is at its best when it is peaceful. Whatever the outcome, Ol Kalou will remain one community the morning after, and it deserves leaders who help it heal rather than divide.
Some will ask why a Governor from Kirinyaga would invest herself so fully in a neighbouring constituency’s by-election. My answer is simple. I do not see our region as a collection of separate fiefdoms to be guarded, but as one family whose children share the same dreams. When I show up for Ol Kalou, I am showing up for the same values I carry into every corner of Mount Kenya—service, delivery and dignity for our people.
Elections come and go. Seats are won and lost on a single day. But the work of development is longer than any one contest, and my commitment does not end when the ballots are counted. Win or lose, I will keep showing up, keep listening and keep delivering—in Ol Kalou, in Kirinyaga and across the region I am proud to call home.
That is the only kind of politics I know how to do, and the only kind our people truly deserve.
The writer is the Governor of Kirinyaga County.
