President Uhuru Kenyatta’s kieleweke wing of the ruling Jubilee party is just not yet done with Deputy President William Ruto!
With 2022 succession politics hotting up, President Kenyatta’s allies who are crafting his succession want to sideline DP Ruto more, to push him further away from the succession matrix.
According to a report by a local daily, the plan being mooted by the President’s close confidants will create four deputy party leader positions to dilute the DP’s influence and box him out of the Jubilee succession matrix.
Under the proposed line-up, the report details that the deputy party leaders will be bosses of particular regions only.
In a telling move, the party is said to be plotting to have another party leader from South Rift, meaning Ruto will only remain in charge of North Rift.
However, the names of those being considered for the three slots remain under the wraps.
To roll out the strategy, Uhuru’s allies plan to sponsor amendments to Article 9 (2) of the Jubilee constitution to provide for four deputy party leaders.
They are first relying on Article 4(2) of the party constitution which empowers the National Executive Committee to reorganise the membership of the entity.
“The National Executive Committee shall have the power to create or establish such categories of membership for the advancement of the interests and objectives of the party as circumstances may warrant,” the article reads.
Once the positions are created, they will then be operationalised awaiting ratification by the National Delegates Conference that will nominate the 2022 presidential flag-bearer.
With four centres of power in the party, Uhuru’s allies believe that Ruto would be annihilated and his dream for the Jubilee ticket dashed.
Ruto’s quest for the party ticket in 2022 could be dimmed through the machinations focusing on bringing on board regional bigwigs to take him on at the primaries.
This is part of the plan B the President’s handlers are looking at in case the DP chooses to hang onto the wobbly outfit to bulldoze his nomination as the 2022 presidential flag-bearer.
