Itumbi Counters Nation Headline On Ruto Using & Dumping Popular Mama Mboga
The 70-year-old lamented that despite being used to popularise the UDA outfit during the campaign period leading up to the 2022 general elections on August 9, she is still living in poverty.
Marvin Chege 
Interior Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Dennis Itumbi on Monday, June 5 dismissed a headline report by the Nation Media Group (NMG) that popular Mama Mboga Pauline Waithera was "used and dumped" by the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.
Waithera had made it to the splash of NMG's newspapers Daily Nation and Taifa Leo and in both the features, had accused Kenya Kwanza-allied leaders of using her popularity to gain political mileage.
The 70-year-old lamented that despite being used to popularise the UDA outfit during the campaign period leading up to the 2022 general elections on August 9, she is still living in poverty.
She noted that at the moment, none of the powerful people she was dining with at the time is picking up her calls, regretting that she was used as a magnet to attract the informal residents to vote for the President William Ruto-led outfit.
President William Ruto arrives at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa for the Presidential debate on July 26, 2022, alongside popular 'Mama Mboga', Pauline Waithera. /FILE
“I am very angry with politicians who used me for political gains during campaigns and have now abandoned me.
"I was used to illustrate how poor people will benefit from the Ruto government through bottom-up but even after they won the presidential election, I was not even invited to Kasarani Stadium during the inauguration of President Ruto and his deputy. I spent the whole day crying at home, people were laughing at me," she complained to the newspaper.
The septuagenarian who sells avocados at Kang'angi market in Kiambu County revealed her realisation that UDA used the tactic to get the poor people to vote for Ruto en masse in the hope that things would get better.
Her very appearance in the newspaper led to Kenyans slamming the Kenya Kwanza regime for abandoning the very people who worked hard to propel them to the top.
Itumbi, however, in a statement, noted that Waithera was given considerable support for her business, including Ksh300,000 to stock her shop.
He further noted that the President committed to rewarding the millions of Kenyans who voted for him and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua through the Hustler Fund loan kitty, among other programmes the Head of State would roll out in adherence to his campaign promises.
"I have another 6m+ names of hustlers who voted for President William Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi - the President has given back through Hustler Fund, Housing, Fertilizer, and UHC is on the course! Above that Shosh Pauline got Ksh300,000 to stock her kiosk," Itumbi stated.
During the same interview, Waithera lamented that Kiambu Senator Karung'o Wathangwa, who was Ruto's presidential nomination agent, never picks up her calls despite being recommended to her.
“This is just a small fraction of the people who don't pick up my calls and when they do most of them promise to call me back but they don't. I went to Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi seeking help after my son Alex Mbugua was admitted to Kiambu Level 5 Hospital and the medical bill was Ksh70,000.
"He kept me at the county headquarters reception for five hours and later assigned me to his secretary and that was the last I heard from him and I vowed never to call him again,'' Waithira recalled.
Others she claimed had ghosted her included Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria, who had promised her a pick-up truck if UDA won, and Kiambu MP Machua Waithaka, who she claimed only gave her a Ksh4,000 scholarship for her three grandchildren.
Waithira went on to claim that she contacted Githunguri Member of Parliament Gathoni Wa Muchomba and told her about her son's medical bill, who in turn contacted DP Gachagua, who offered her Ksh100,000, which she used to pay her son's medical bill.
“Gachagua sent Wa Muchomba Ksh100,000 after I shared my problems with her and I was left with Ksh30,000 which I used to settle other debts I had accumulated through borrowing. I was left with nothing,'' Waithira complained.
