Deputy President Willliam Ruto and his axis have been ambivalent about the whole “handshake” and calls for constitutional amendments, which they view as schemes to scuttle his presidential ambitions.
Meru Senator Mithika Linturi, a Ruto supporter, says the move by some Jubilee leaders to launch “unrestrained hostilities” against Mr Ruto are not surprising.
“We have been aware of these manoeuvres and only the patience, diligence, political maturity and statesmanship of the DP has brought us this far.
“This is why personally, many of my colleagues and I were opposed to to the merger of United Republican Party (URP) and The National Alliance (TNA) in 2016,” he said in an interview on Monday.
Mr Linturi said his reservations about the dissolution of the Jubilee Alliance Party (Jap) to from the Jubilee Party was informed by undisguised hostilities and wars of attrition the TNA leadership had waged against URP since 2013.
These wars burst into the open when Mr Linturi collected signatures to censure then-Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru, who eventually left office under a cloud related to the National Youth Service.
She is now Kirinyaga governor and has since buried the hatchet with Mr Ruto and Mr Odinga.
He was elected to the National Assembly in 2013 on the defunct Alliance Party of Kenya (APK) ticket that had resisted a strong TNA wave in Meru under the leadership of now current governor Kiraitu Murungi.
Mr Linturi says most URP associates believed their party was more popular than TNA, and had better prospects in any competitive process.
Mr Ruto stood his ground, insisting on a single outfit, arguing that approaching 2017 as fragmented parties was a recipe for disaster.
His reference was how former President Mwai Kibaki won the election in 2007, but without a majority he could count on to influence policy.
“Even many TNA MPs were spending more time with us than in their own party.
“The DP was easily accessible, available, and never failed to pick anyone’s call or attend to their concerns in case one needed government intervention. Their leader was always unavailable and inaccessible. The situation has not changed,” Mr Linturi said.