Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki has cautioned that NASA leader Raila Odinga’s engagement with President Uhuru Kenyatta could scuttle Jubilee succession plans.
He welcomed the two leaders’ unity bid but warned the ruling coalition’s members that Raila’s entry might scuttle the 2022 general election plot.
“Jubilee should be cautious so that Raila does not mess it ahead of 2022,” the Senate deputy speaker said during a Sunday service at Word of Faith church in Mukothima, Tharaka.
Kindiki lauded the new-found political partnership between the President and the former prime minister.
Uhuru and Raila met for talks at Harambee House and issued a joint statement with a pledge to let go of the acrimony around last year’s presidential poll.
The legislator was apparently referring to the deal reached between Uhuru and DP William Ruto when they agreed to work together ahead of the 2013 election.
The pact, which was renewed in September 2016 when Jubilee parties merged into one entity, was that Ruto would succeed Uhuru after the latter completes his term.
Jubilee parties campaigned on the premise of the same but Raila’s entry into Uhuru’s inner circle has been viewed will likely change the equation.
The two leaders, in their briefing, said it was time to put aside political competition and focus on uniting Kenyans for a stable and prosperous future.
However, Kindiki said: “Raila has a history of breaking parties whenever he joins coalitions…he formed a coalition with KANU in 1997 using LDP only to implode it from within.”
“Raila is like a camel that told a house owner to allow it shelter only its head from the rains only to ask for his hump to be allowed in too.”
“After it was finally allowed, the entire camel came inside and the house crumbled….We do not want that to happen to Jubilee,” Kindiki told the congregation.
He said that Jubilee already has agreed to front Deputy President William Ruto as the party’s 2022 presidential candidate.
Kindiki, a two-time senator since devolution, is viewed to be a staunch DP Ruto’s supporter and has been tipped as the latter’s running mate in the next poll.
All the same, he said the rare show of unity between Uhuru and Raila should be “used to introduce minimum but essential pro-people constitutional reforms.”
The legislator said the political partnership will pacify the country and help in the stabilisation of the national economy, address inclusivity, and end tribalism.
“Kenyans should utilise the political opportunity presented by the coming together of the two leaders to undertake an uncontested minimum constitutional reform.”
“This should address issues such as the bloated wage bill, public debt, the size of Parliament, increase allocations to counties and enhance national unity,” he added.
He backed proposals to broaden the executive structure at the top by creating the position of a non-executive Prime Minister and two deputies.
Leave a Reply