A brief Sunday evening message from the well-known Meru DCP coordinator has triggered speculation across the county’s shifting political landscape.Patrick Muriungi, a former journalist and long-time aide to current and former political heavyweights, announced he was taking what he termed a “deserved sabbatical” from public and social media engagement, adding only that the break would last “until further notice.”
“I wish to inform my friends here that I am taking a break from active social media engagements, both political and social scenes until further notice,” he wrote, signing off with a wave and prayer emoji. No explanation followed.
Muriungi is best known for his years as a keep plank of Kiraitu inner circle and publisher of County Focus, a Meru-based newspaper that grew to prominence during Kiraitu Murungi’s tenure as governor. He later ditched Kiraitu before the 2022 election and became associated with Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi’s political network and more recently was seen as an ally of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, frequently articulating Gachagua’s interests in the region’s fractious political debates.
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His sudden public withdrawal has therefore raised questions. Some local observers link the decision to emerging realignments within the Mt Kenya political bloc, where leaders have been jostling for influence ahead of what is widely seen as a defining period for the former Deputy President’s fortunes. Others point to developments closer to home. Muriungi’s wife was recently appointed to a senior role in a government flagship programme, a move interpreted in some quarters as a shift in the family’s political footing.
County politicians and activists responded with caution, most declining to comment publicly. A close associate described the move as a “strategic pause” while another dismissed the speculation as “Meru being Meru — reading politics into everything.”
