In what appears to be foundation laying for the 2017 general election, Governor Alfred Mutua on Saturday met selected professionals from eight counties.
The meeting held at Machakos Stadium was attended by over 1,000 professionals from Machakos, Makueni, Kitui, Taveta, Mombasa, Nairobi, Embu and Nakuru counties.
Although discussions at the event revolved around uplifting living standards of the Kamba people, politics, according to sources who spoke to this writer took centre stage with major resolutions passed.
Interestingly, the event came only a week after Mr Mutua returned from a one-month long tour of Tanzania, Dubai and Indonesia- a journey widely criticised by Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka.
During the tour, Mr Kalonzo accused the governor of abandoning the Kamba people by over-staying abroad instead of devising ways of completing stalled development projects at the county.
Kalonzo, at the time, even went ahead to give Mutua a seven-day untimatum to return home failure to which, his Deputy Bernard Kiala would have taken over the leadership of the county.
During the Saturday meeting, it was agreed that leaders from the region who are not development conscious be politically isolated.
"Leaders who are at the fore front to champion development of our people and fighting poverty will be supported by Ukambani professionals in all ways," Mr Mutua after the meeting posted on his official facebook account.
"On the other hand, leaders that stand on the ways of values of development, Ukambani professionals will reject them to the extent of campaigning against them and censuring them in the community. Therefore, the meeting urges other leaders, political and from other sectors, to join the Ukambani Development Caucus to help achieve the transformation of this region and community."
According to the resolutions seen by this writer, those in the meeting also unanimously agreed that leaders who engage in 'empty politicking', insults, defamation and acts meant to scuttle development and to cause disharmony will be black listed by Ukambani professionals and campaigned against.
On arrival from his oversees trip on March 12, Mutua met a group of MCAs in a closed-door meeting before he proceeded to Mwala town for a rally where he hit out at Kalonzo for undermining his government.
"I request [Kalonzo Musyoka] to publicly declare his development score card for the region. Leaders need to be accountable to voters and should only be supported based on what they have done for [them]," Mutua said at the rally as he responded to the former Vice President who had earlier on accused him of taking too much time outside the country.
According to Kalonzo who spoke at a rally at Kyandu Academy in Kyevaluki, Kangundo sub county, the county boss was unnecessarily taking too much time travelling at the expense of serving Machakos residents.
"I have not heard of an elected leader staying away from his country for that long," Kalonzo said then.
The Saturday meeting agreed that there will be an interim steering committee comprising of professionals from Ukambani counties with Governor Mutua appointed the patron, Ukambani Professionals Caucus.