The house in Pangani is a house in shambles.
Deputy President William Ruto is out to uproot any obstacle in his way just so he can succeed his boss President Uhuru Kenyatta even if means toppling the current Party leadership.
Ruto’s Tangatanga mandarins led by Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria have now demanded thorough cleaning of the ‘house’ and consequently an election to replace the hitherto party leadership.
Kuria claimed the incumbent leadership is stifling internal democracy by gagging members’ freedom of expression.
His statements exposes a house divided and obsessed with 2022 internal succession and the 2022 elections. The handshake between Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta has indeed tilted the house in Pangani and fall it may.
Kuria’s sentiments were echoed by Kericho senator Aaron Cheruiyot, another Ruto’s minion who insisted that the Jubilee Party polls were long overdue.
“The Jubilee Party should hold elections as soon as possible, the national office needs fresh blood, including a crop of young people, to steer the party to even greater heights. We owe it to our party members,” Cheruiyot said.
Ruto is ostensibly keen on installing a team of lieutenants at Jubilee House friendly to his 2022 presidential ambitions, amid growing fears that Central Kenya could abandon him.
The DP’s troops want the much-awaited internal elections conducted soon to pick new office bearers right from the grassroots up to the national office.
Kuria accused the current party leadership of lacking the capacity to rally political leaders to successfully support Uhuru’s Big Four agenda.
“Key national agendas such as the Big Four are very potent warheads, with the potential of transforming Kenya forever,” he said on Facebook. “But even the most lethal warhead requires a strong missile to deliver it. In the case of the Big Four, a strong Jubilee Party is that missile.”
In an open bid to ouster Tuju, the controversial MP urged the party to pave the way for active politicians to assume its leadership mantle through free, fair and transparent elections.
“Yet we are the only political party with no space for politicians. John Mbadi (ODM), Professor Kivutha Kibwana (Wiper), Boni Khalwale (Ford Kenya) and Chris Wamalwa (Ford Kenya) are party chairmen and active politicians,” Kuria said, mixing up facts.
“Time has come for Jubilee Party to open up space for political participation. Party elections are long overdue,” he concluded.
When contacted yesterday, Tuju said, “I have no comment on the issue.”
Sirisia MP John Walukhe said the party was facing internal confusion caused by lack of communication structures.
“I am the Bungoma county Jubilee Party chairman, yet like many other grassroots officials I don’t know what is happening. It is total confusion and we are now lost. These elections could have been done like yesterday,” he complained.
Waluke revealed that the parry has been thrown into disarray since the March 9 handshake. Most members are disillusioned, he said.
“We have kept asking what Raila came to do in our party. It is like he came to wreck our party. Since Raila came we have not been happy and people are divided,” the MP said in reference to the Uhuru-Raila Building Bridges pact.
National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale, a staunch ally of Ruto, appeared to support calls for internal elections.
“The President’s agenda is to leave the Jubilee Party in the league of South Africa’s ANC or like other major parties in the US and UK. It is through elections that the party builds its grassroots support by having strong youth and women leagues,” the Garissa Township MP said.
Duale said, however, there was no cause for alarm in the party, which he described as the single largest outfit in the country. “Jubilee in the future must be owned by the people,” he said.
The attacks are understood to be directed at secretary general Raphael Tuju and outspoken vice chairman David Murathe over claims that they are ‘sabotaging’ the DP’s plan to succeed President Kenyatta.
The Jubilee Party never held elections to fill key positions after the merger of 11 affiliates less than a year before the 2017 election.
Apart from Tuju and Murathe, other interim officials include chairman Nelson Dzuya, deputy secretaries general Caleb Kositany and Fatuma Mohamoud, Alfred Korir (treasurer) and Abdul Hajji (organising secretary).
The officials were handpicked by Uhuru and Ruto to hold office on an interim basis following the merger of political parties in September 2016.
Grassroots elections, which were to be held within 90 days after last year’s general election, have never taken place.
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