Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju, a close confidant of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his family runs the show at Jubilee Headquarters which Deputy President Dr William Ruto has unsuccessfully fought to control.
Some sources say Tuju, who is also a Cabinet minister without portfolio, is simply executing Uhuru’s directives, pointing to the widening rift between the President and his deputy.
Former powerful Jubilee vice-chairman David Murathe is also understood to still be pulling the strings, despite resigning in a huff in January, citing differences with Ruto. But is he the only one behind the ‘Stop Ruto’ movement?
Signals of a tough war between Tuju and Ruto emerged this week after the ex-Rarieda MP issued a Jubilee statement on “setting the record straight” on ODM’s withdrawal from the Wajir West poll.
He said there were “high-level consultations between Opposition Chief Raila Odinga and President Uhuru before Mohamed Elmi withdrew as ODM’s candidate for the poll”.
“We would like to put on record that this withdrawal by ODM follows high-level consultations by the leadership of the two parties,” Tuju stated and thanked the ODM leadership “for reading with us from the same script”.
He went on, “As reiterated by the President a few days ago during his State of the Nation address, “There is no going back on the Building Bridges Initiative.”
The statement is similar to a separate statement by ODM’s director of campaigns Junet Mohamed.
Ruto’s allies say Tuju is among a cabal of powerful elites around the President who are sabotaging their man.
On the Wajir issue, they say Tuju contradicted the DP who is his boss in the Jubilee hierarchy.
However, Wajir leaders led by Governor Mohamud Abdi protested against Tuju, saying the deal was struck by Ruto himself.
“We, as leaders from the region do not condone deceit and/or conmanship. The decision had nothing to do with the ODM party or any of its functionaries, as some would allege,” they said.
Ruto, who held a flurry of meetings with Wajir leaders to firm up his grip on Northeastern, been silent on whether he brokered the deal.
But in a clear indication that Ruto’s allies were unhappy, National Assembly Majority Whip Benjamin Washiali yesterday accused Tuju of issuing reckless statements with the potential of breaking up Jubilee.
“We should stop this bragging and chest-thumping about who negotiated it. Whoever did that was doing so on behalf of the party and nobody should claim credit,” said the Mumias East MP, a close ally of Ruto.
He added, “It was actually the DP who reached out to this candidate and the leaders of Wajir to broker the deal. Raila had nothing to do with the consultations. The consultations were at the DP level.”
On Wednesday, Murathe threw a spanner in the works once more when he claimed that Ruto may not be Jubilee’s 2022 presidential candidate.
This gave credence to the narrative that there are powerful forces within Jubilee pushing to block Ruto from succeeding Uhuru by angling for another broader political formation that includes key opposition figures.