Senator Kipchumba Murkomen has prevously said there are bureaucrats out to block Deputy President William Ruto’s bid to become President in incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta’s office.
He said cracks have been triggered by “individuals serving within government at the Office of the President”.
“We have a concern about the existence of a small wing of individuals serving within government at the Office of the President, government ministries who are spending most of their time to plant discord in the Jubilee Party,” he said during a Citizen TV interview.
The senator, a member of Ruto’s kitchen Cabinet, said those keen to scuttle Ruto’s plans for 2022 want to create bad blood between him and Uhuru.
“If the President and Deputy President do not sit down together and say the direction that these things are taking is not useful to Jubilee as a party, the government, Kenya as a nation and in the legacy of the President; if they do not face those issues fairly and squarely and bring those persons within government into account, such small cracks will cause a bigger problem,” Murkomen said.
He said there were no personal differences between Uhuru and Ruto. He said the people fuelling the divisions have been trying to convince Uhuru he does not need Ruto anymore because he has already achieved his goals as President. “These same people are influencing direction of… the government… with only a single agenda… separating the President and his deputy,” he said.
Murathe has been cited as the stumbling block between Ruto and the top seat in the land. However, barely the day after Jubilee Party Vice-Chair went on an all-out assault on Deputy President William Ruto’s presidential ambitions, he has resigned from his position in the ruling party.
Murathe made the announcement on Sunday at his home in Garden Estate, Nairobi saying his position at Jubilee was no longer tenable. Murathe said he had to sit in the same National Executive Council with a man (Ruto) he was taking to court to block his 2022 presidential bid.
“I now find that it is no longer tenable to stay on as the party vice-chairman. There is no way I am going to sit in the same NEC with someone who feel I am out to block him from ascending to the presidency. I have quit my position,” he said.
Murathe, a close friend of President Uhuru Kenyatta and ex-Gatanga MP, yesterday said Ruto is not eligible to run for president in 2022 because his fate is constitutionally intertwined with the President’s.
He said his side will be seeking the Supreme Court’s advisory opinion on the matter ahead of the election.
“Section 148 of the Constitution says nobody can run for Deputy President for more than two terms. And why does it say that? Because Section 142 also says nobody can run for President for more than two terms, and this presidency is a pair… If for whatever reason the president is not able to carry out his functions, who becomes the president?
Can the President sack the DP? Can he? So in essence, if he automatically becomes President without going for the mandate of the voter, it means he is still riding on the very first mandate they were given as a pair. Then that is why he can’t run again…” said Murathe.
He was speaking at Rarieda during the burial of Kefa Oduor, Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju’s brother.