President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party has fired a warning shot at Deputy President William Ruto and his brigade over their continued internal rebellion.
The DP, who has been leading a parallel faction within the ruling party, is associated with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), which recently bagged its first seat in Nakuru County’s London Ward.
UDA’s Anthony Nzuki garnered 1,707 votes against Mr Francis Njoroge of Jubilee, who got 1,385 votes. Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju told Nation in an exclusive that Dr Ruto has become openly defiant.
“I have always tried to avoid discussing the position of deputy party leader. As secretary-general, I should not be adding fuel to the fire. I should be trying to extinguish the fire,” he said.
Although he did not confirm or deny plans to oust the DP as deputy party leader, Mr Tuju said anybody who feels they cannot continue subscribing to the Jubilee agenda should resign and seek a fresh mandate.
The party’s National Management Committee (NMC) two weeks kicked out Mr Caleb Kositany as deputy secretary-general and replaced him with Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny. But the DP’s camp has insisted that its association with UDA should not be misconstrued to mean rebellion, claiming UDA is part of Jubilee courtesy of a pre-election agreement between the ruling party and the Party of Development and Reforms (PDR), whose name was changed to UDA.
Deputy President William Ruto.
Photo credit: Wachira Mwangi | Nation Media Group
PDR was formally Mr Tuju’s Party of Action (POA). Mr Tuju, however, accused the UDA brigade of dishonesty.
“When people are dishonest, they look for technicalities. If you are honest, you just come out and resign and go for re-election,” Mr Tuju said.
Just like Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga did in 1994 when he resigned from Ford-Kenya and sought a fresh mandate through the National Development Party (NDP) and won, Jubilee critics should do the same, he added.
Mr Tuju defended the recent purge that saw several of the DP’s allies kicked out of the party, saying circumstances had compelled it to do so.
Some of the DP’s lieutenants who have faced the axe are former Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen, former Senate Majority Chief whips Susan Kihika and Irungu Kang’ata, former National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale, former National Assembly majority whips Ben Washiali and Mr Kositany.
“When you see us taking action against any renegade party officials, it is not something that we do gleefully. By the time we take action against any individual, it’s because they have created a situation that is almost untenable,” said Mr Tuju, citing Mr Kositany, who he claimed would issue circulars to counter the party’s official communications.
“We tolerated it for more than a year. We exercised a lot of patience and a lot of tolerance before we made that decision to kick him out,” he said.
For Mr Murkomen, Mr Tuju said, the Elgeyo Marakwet senator had actively criticised the President several times and campaigned against government positions.
He also revisited the removal of Mr Kang’ata as the Senate majority whip, arguing that he “breached confidentiality.”
Mr Tuju also disclosed that none of the UDA associated legislators had halted their monthly contributions to the Jubilee Party: “We have not received any notice from the clerk of the National Assembly or any of the county assemblies for the withdrawal of any member from submitting their monthly contribution.”
He said there is need for accountable leadership, adding that, should the legislators go ahead to starve the party of funds, the law would be applied to deal with the situation.
“There is the Political Parties Act, which addresses those issues and the contractual obligations they signed when they were nominated by the party,” he said.
Mr Tuju said it was irresponsible for any leader to subject his supporters to a “cult-like movement.”
“We don’t want a situation where, despite having very important and useful development projects proposed, for example by BBI, because the cult leader says no, everybody else objects to it, ” Mr Tuju said.
