Kikuyu Member of Parliament Kimani Ichung'wa has vowed to continue backing Deputy President William Ruto in his bid for the presidency in 2022.
Ichung'wa said threats and intimidation from unnamed Jubilee Party senior officials will not stop him from supporting his candidate of choice and added that he should be left free to speak his mind.
"I will not change my mind on my political persuasion," Ichung'wa told Sunday Standard.
The vocal MP, who critics have labeled the 'official leader of Tangatanga squad in Mt Kenya, also trashed a directive believed to have come from Uhuru Kenyatta banning MPs from Central from attending Ruto's rallies.
He said as an elected leader he has derived his mandate from the people and thus he won't be cowed to back down in his duty to represent them by pushing government's development agenda.
"We are politicians, we are not running a church, but a political party with a development agenda. No one can stop me as a leader from attending meetings, or accompany anybody for meetings to push for the Big Four in any part of the country," he told the local daily.
Ichung'wa last Sunday accompanied Ruto to a fundraiser in Nairobi but he has been conspicuously missing in DP tours in Isiolo and Garissa counties during the week.