By Abdimalik Hajir - Reporter
Cracks are emerging among Members of Parliament from Kenya's Northeastern region within the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), with some legislators now openly challenging the ruling party.
On Thursday, during the State of the Nation address in the National Assembly, a section of MPs staged a walkout in protest, claiming the speech had completely ignored the region. Wajir North MP Ibrahim Saney accused President William Ruto of deliberately overlooking Northeastern Kenya, adding that there was nothing actionable in the address.
"As MPs from Northern Kenya, we are protesting because we are ignored, abandoned, and marginalized continuously, and we are not happy with the president's address in its entirety," he said outside Parliament, flanked by Fafi MP Salah Yakub and Mohamed Aden Daudi.
Fafi MP Salah Yakub said President Ruto dwelled on sugarcane, coffee, and other agricultural sectors but made no substantial mention of livestock the economic backbone for Northeastern Kenya.
"We left the president addressing the nation because we believe that he and his government have not considered us. We are asking him to go back to the drawing board since our region is really missing out," he said.
Speaking in Hagadera during a fund drive in support of the burnt Hagadera market on Sunday, the lawmakers declared that come 2027, the region will vote based on the development investments made by the government.
On Sunday, the same lawmakers including Wajir North's Saney reiterated that the long-held notion that Northeastern Kenya always votes with the government of the day will no longer hold.
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"We have heard many promises; they have gone around the region making many promises to the people of Northeastern Kenya. But after two years, we will do a self-audit and only reciprocate after finding several developments on the ground," said the UDA lawmaker.
Saney added that there is no such thing as a free vote, and the leaders will need to go back to the drawing board to forge a way forward on who to support in the general elections. The lawmakers also claimed that, besides President Ruto removing barriers in the acquisition of citizenship documents, there is still a deliberate attempt to delay production of IDs.
They alleged that there has been no ID production for Northern Kenya, with new hurdles placed by officials in the name of validation. It's interesting to see some lawmakers who have been die-hard defenders of the ruling party now increasingly becoming critics.
In 2022, Fafi MP Salah Yakub caused controversy when he proposed a plan to scrap the two-term presidential limit and set the age cap for contesting the seat at 75. Speaking separately, Garissa County UDA coordinator Mohamed Gedi Mohamed—also popularly known as OCS—dismissed allegations that the government has not developed the region.
He cited the removal of the discriminatory vetting process in ID acquisition as one of the milestones achieved by President Ruto's government for the region. "Northeastern is fully behind President Ruto and his government. It's the first time Northeastern is going to be connected in terms of infrastructure; the ongoing construction of the Garissa bridge is also a big step," he said
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