Politics in Kenya has always been a dirty game. Political leaders easily camouflage to suit the surrounding environment. This is exactly what is likely to happen to the Deputy President William Ruto. The signs of betrayal are now being conspicuous,will he survive the storm of betrayal?
On Wednesday Jubilee vice chairman David Murathe who is Uhuru’s close ally, openly asked Ruto to retire alongside the President in 2022.
His remarks have triggered a political firestorm that has widened the rift within the President’s ruling party.
Murathe bluntly stated he Kikuyu community does not have any MoU with Ruto regarding support in 2022.
“If he (Ruto) has an MoU with Uhuru Kenyatta, then that was an agreement between two individuals,” Murathe said in Vihiga during the Maragoli Cultural Celebrations.
"We dont have an agreement with you to support you in 2022. Prepare to go home"-David Murathe, right hand man of Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice chair of Jubilee party. Things just got thick. Plot thickens. pic.twitter.com/wexCWHh1Kr
— Lord Abraham Mutai (@ItsMutai) December 26, 2018
Murathe is not an ordinary politician.
Apart from being Uhuru’s long-time friend, Murathe played a key role in a special group of senior individuals in government and from the financial sector, mainly from the Mt Kenya region. This group quietly but diligently campaigned for Uhuru’s re-election and raised a lot of money.
Murathe pronounced himself just a month after Uhuru himself appeared to throw Ruto under the bus, saying his choice of successor would be a “shocker”. The game plan was thrown into disarray.
In a terse statement to newsrooms yesterday, ex-Maragua MP Elias Mbau fired a rejoinder that the Kikuyu community will not succumb to blackmail into blindly supporting any candidate.
Mbau strongly backed Murathe that Kenyans must have the freedom to choose their leaders without being boxed into a corner.
However, Ruto’s allies yesterday told off Murathe, claiming the former Gatanga MP has no political mandate to issue the Jubilee Party’s position on such a weighty matter as succession.
Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa said only President Kenyatta as the party leader and Ruto as deputy can give party direction — and no one “masquerading” as a Jubilee official.
“The two humble gentlemen have not contradicted each other and they are not about to contradict each other in the near future. Who elected him [Murathe] to that office? Which constituency does he represent? From where does he draw his mandate?” Ichung’wa asked.
He rubbished Murathe as a political broker posing as the Jubilee vice chairman.
“For brokers, they can concentrate on brokering Chinese in this town, but when their stomachs are full, let them not vomit on us. The rest of us are busy ‘tangatanga-ing’ [traversing] the country to improve the lives of our people,” the chairman of the National Assembly budget committee said.
He went on, “In this festive season, I would honestly forgive anybody seeming to be drunk. But I would also encourage that when they are through with brokering, they don’t verbal-diarrhea on innocent Kenyans.”
“This is a Chinese broker who wants to perpetuate the same to the Jubilee Party to benefit himself at the expense of Kenyans,” he added.
Nandi senator Samson Cherargei hit out at Murathe, calling him an “insignificant politician without any authority to speak for the party”.
“This is a man seeking cheap relevance by attacking the Deputy President, because anybody seeking political relevance must attack the DP,” Cherargei said.
The senator weighed in on the Uhuru-Raila handshake,suggesting that a few politicians had hijacked it and weaponized it to kill the DP’s presidential bid.
These two voices are now confusing to the Deputy President. I think he should read in between the lines and take early precaution. Anything is possible from Uhuru’s camp right now.