In what can only be described as blatant political conmanship, President William Ruto’s government has removed 27 transformers that were donated to Mbeere North constituency during last year’s by-election, leaving residents who voted for the ruling party sitting in darkness and feeling thoroughly deceived.
During the hotly contested by-election, Ruto and his agents flooded the constituency with over 40 brand new transformers, using them as bait to convince residents to vote for UDA candidate Leo Wamuthende. The strategy worked. Wamuthende won the seat and Mbeere North went to the ruling party.
But the lights did not last long.
Residents are now reporting that 27 of those transformers have been quietly removed, plunging homes and businesses back into the same darkness they were in before they cast their votes for Wamuthende. The anger on the ground is palpable, and the sense of betrayal is deep.
Wamuthende has attempted to calm the storm by claiming that the transformers were removed for maintenance. But residents are not buying it. The question they are asking their MP to answer is simple and devastating. How do brand-new transformers installed less than six months ago already require maintenance?
The more widely held belief among residents tells a far more cynical story. The transformers, they say, have been carted off to Ol Kalou constituency, where the UDA is currently battling to win the upcoming by-election against Democracy for Citizens Party candidate Sammy Ngotho. The timing is too convenient to ignore, particularly given that UDA has already been promising Ol Kalou residents that transformers will be installed in every ward in the constituency if they vote for UDA candidate Samuel Muchina.
The pattern is now clear for all to see. Donate transformers to win a vote, remove them once the election is done, take them to the next battleground, and repeat the cycle. Mbeere North has lived this story from beginning to end and has the darkness to prove it.
Here are the photos showing how the government removed the transformers from Mbeere North after residents delivered their votes to UDA.
