Deputy President William Ruto is shaking up his team to include allies of Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi and Ford Kenya boss Moses Wetang’ula in a campaign machinery expected to lead Kenya Kwanza vote hunt.
To tackle different aspects of vote hunting in his State House quest, the coalition has formed nine campaign committees to complement one another.
They are presidential campaign steering council, economic advisory, politburo, legal, governance and human rights, diaspora, communication, United Democratic Alliance (UDA) leadership structure and foreign relations.
The list of strategists and advisers includes individuals who have held powerful positions in the government. Each team has unique responsibilities, despite the core goal being selling DP Ruto’s bid and members being in more than one committee.
The whole team is headed by Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok as director general, while Davis Chirchir is the spokesperson or chief executive officer.
Mr Chirchir is an IT expert and a former Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary under Jubilee. He was axed in 2015 over graft allegations. He was Jubilee’s chief agent for the August 8, 2017 polls and the October repeat election.
Then-Nasa presidential candidate Raila Odinga, who disputed the outcome of the elections, claimed Mr Chirchir had hacked into the servers of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and manipulated the presidential results in favour of President Kenyatta.
Mr Chirchir never responded to the allegations. Yesterday, he neither returned our calls nor responded to text and WhatsApp messages. A document seen by the Sunday Nation and confirmed by three members of the team indicated he is the spokesperson of the DP ’s secretariat.
Earlier on, Mr Nanok said: “Thousands of volunteers of all shades are working to deliver the win required on August 9 to form a government that will decide on their dreams and aspirations.”
In the Presidential campaign steering council, which seems to be the supreme organ, apart from Mr Nanok and Mr Chirchir, others proposed to sit there include Prof David Ndii, Veronica Maina, Hassan Mohammed, Eliud Owalo, former MP Ababu Namwamba, and Augustine Cheruiyot.
Prof Amukowa Anangwe, who is the head of Mr Mudavadi’s presidential secretariat, Brown Ondego, Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja and Sam Karanja, who was the head of One Kenya Alliance (OKA) technical committee, are nominees from Mr Mudavadi’s side, while Mr Wetang’ula will second Bramwel Simiyu. The council is responsible for designing presidential strategies and overseeing and coordinating presidential campaigns.
The economic advisory is chaired by Prof Ndii and it is tasked to coordinate the bottom-up economic model and design macroeconomic policies for implementation if they form government. It is also designing the structure of government. Dr Irene Asienga, Dr Robert Muriithi, Mr Owalo, Mr Mohammed, Dr Crispin Bokea and Mr Cheruiyot are other members.
Dr Bokea is a former Central Bank of Kenya economist, while Mr Mohammed is a former National Bank manager.
When contacted to confirm his team, Prof Ndii said: “I have no comment for you.”
Dr Asienga is a Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) commissioner and an economist with a wealth of knowledge and experience in economic planning, development, and research, while Mr Cheruiyot is the DP’s chief adviser on food security and agriculture.
