Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has urged men and women from the Mt Kenya region to sire more children as a way of promoting economic development in Central Kenya.

The deputy president says despite growing up in a large family of nine, he has only two children, a decision he regrets and blames on the influence of the Western world mentality.

Speaking on Friday in an interview with a local vernacular station, Gachagua asked women to have as many children hinting at the biblical analogy of “multiply, and fill the Earth”.

“I was deceived by the white man to only get two children. It’s the stupidity of that era because we were still naive and believed everything the white man said… We were nine in our family and despite our parents being uneducated,they took us to school,” said Gachagua.

He added,“Let people have 5, 6, 7, 8 (children)… God will help you and you will be able to raise them.”

Fight Against Alcoholism

Gachagua went on to state that his spirited fight against alcoholism, especially in the Mt Kenya region, is all about salvaging the Central Kenya population.

“All the illicit alcohol was brought to central Kenya and it was a ploy to put an end to our extensive population. It’s either the previous government was not thinking about that issue or they could see any problem in alcohol,” said the DP.

According to him, the youth in the region have drowned in alcoholism, which he says is the key factor in the redundant population.

“Our children were spending nights in dungeons. Young married men would get drunk and instead of sleeping on the bed, they would sleep under bed. Where were we to get children? That’s why I’m very determined to end this business of illicit brews,” he affirmed.

Gachagua also lamented over Mt Kenya youth who come to seek a living in the city and fail to return home during the census hence during the allocation of national resources the region fails to receive its rightful share in terms of population.