Former Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has accused Embu Governor Cecily Mbarire of diverting funds allocated for the Mashanga County Aggregation and Industrial Park (CAIP), alleging the money was instead used to finance a boda boda event.
In a strongly worded statement, Kuria said he was “deeply disappointed” by what he termed as a confession made by Governor Mbarire before the Senate. According to Kuria, the funds were initially earmarked to support the CAIP project, which he described as a transformative pillar of rural industrialisation.
“My vision for CAIPs was to create at least 20,000 direct rural jobs in every county, raise farmers’ incomes through value addition and exports, and grow new urban areas within rural regions,” Kuria said. He argued that the industrial parks were designed to spur manufacturing, reduce post-harvest losses, and anchor sustainable economic growth at the grassroots.
Kuria went further to claim that the CAIP initiative would have delivered greater long-term impact than flagship national programmes such as Universal Health Care and Affordable Housing combined. He suggested that political considerations may have undermined the project’s implementation, noting that successful delivery would not necessarily have brought him personal credit.
“Kenyans were the real losers, not Moses Kuria,” he said, maintaining that the alleged diversion of funds denied citizens jobs, income opportunities, and industrial growth.
The claims are yet to be independently verified, and Governor Mbarire has not publicly responded to this allegation by Kuria.