Jubilee Party Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee Party says there exists no pro-2027 political handshake between him and President William Ruto.
This is despite the December 2024 shocker where the two were pictured together in the founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta's compound in a handshake-like posture.
Jubilee Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni on Monday urged Mr Kenyatta's followers to continue being loyal without getting bothered by rumours of their boss joining the government.
"Do not get bothered by propaganda that our leader has abandoned us and joined the government to help it get reelected in 2027. Mr Kenyatta remains committed to the broader good of the country and our people. He stands for nothing less than a stable, prosperous and well-governed country," Mr Kioni said.
“Those who still harboured doubts about where our party leader stands clearly heard him encourage the Gen Z to come out forcefully to peacefully demand a fair and just country".
Mr Kioni was referring to Mr Kenyatta’s remarks last Friday while addressing mourners at the burial ceremony of his cousin Kibathi Muigai.
In his speech, Mr Kenyatta said Kenya has a problem of fear peddlers who do not understand that power is transient.
"The problem with some is peddling fear... do not buy it. Nothing lasts forever. Gen Z are the story of the future... Everything is worth a fight. Don't just stay there to later complain when you achieve nothing," he said.
In what appeared to be a direct jab to President Ruto's administration, Mr Kenyatta added that "cowards have no space in liberations".
In the thunderbolt speech which President Ruto has since criticised as possible incitement against the youth, Mr Kenyatta said "You should not be cowed...You know, I don't know whether you have been cowed...no, that's not the way to live. Fight for your rights".
But Dr Ruto, while in Western region on Sunday dismissed "those who instead of giving our youths...our children...opportunities are busy inviting them to violence".
He said "what can make a difference is not slogans aimed at hardening the youths but those interventions that alleviate poverty among them".
Mr Kioni also took issue with the rumours that President Ruto had taken to his predecessor some 12 goats as cultural appeasement for hostilities that had abound between them since 2018.
He dismissed the claims as farfetched, saying if there were such a gesture, then it had nothing to do with cultural atonement.
"In Mt Kenya, we don't have any cultural appeasement that calls for 12 goats that Ruto is said to have taken to former President Kenyatta. If he took them, then it must have been a commercial transaction," he said.
On Monday, Mr Kioni said that "Mr Kenyatta has no price that can attract him to abandon the cause for common good so as to help any quarter hell-bent to manipulate all aspects of helping the country attain its common good agenda".
He said "the youth only become our children when we want their votes but targets for abduction, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances when we finally into power".
After ruling together, where Dr Ruto was Mr Kenyatta's deputy president since 2013, they immediately soured relations after they won a second term in 2018.
Mr Kenyatta started campaigning against a possibility of Dr Ruto succeeding him in the 2022 General Elections, instead supporting Mr Raila Odinga.
However, Mr Odinga lost the vote to Dr Ruto, in the process making Mr Kenyatta lose Mt Kenya kingship to Mr Rigathi Gachagua who had risen to be deputy president.
Following the fallout between Dr Ruto and Mr Gachagua, which culminated into the latter being kicked out of government by impeachment, Dr Ruto made a surprise visit to Mr Kenyatta’s Gatundu home.
Months later, Dr Ruto reconstituted his Cabinet and picked former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo as Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication and the Digital Economy, Mr Mutahi Kagwe landing the Agriculture docket.
Former Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui landed the Cabinet Secretary for Investment, Trade, and Industry slot while former Murang'a Senator Kembi Gitura became board chairman for the Kenyatta University Referral hospital.
Former Laikipia governor Mr Ndiritu Muriithi became Kenya Revenue Authority board chairman to mark what pundits defined as Mr Kenyatta's grafting into government.
But on Monday, Mr Kioni said Mr Kenyatta is not a sellout and of all the people who can brainwash him, President Ruto cannot be the one.
Mr Kioni said Mr Kenyatta did not play any role in the cabinet appointment of Kagwe, Kabogo and Kinyanjui.
"After the President met Mr Kenyatta, he manipulated the agenda and outcome," he said.
Mr Kioni said that it was President Ruto who had booked an appointment to check on his predecessor purely as a stately visit.
"After Mr Kenyatta granted him the appointment, the president emerged with his own narrative. There was no joint statement but Dr Ruto went into a public relations spree to make it appear as if he had a handshake with Mr Kenyatta," Mr Kioni said.
He said he suspected the President's core agenda being to try and give some legitimacy to his already concluded talks with those he had already settled on to graft into his government.
"I can assure you that those people from Mt Kenya accepting President Ruto jobs are doing so individually. If Ruto wanted to legitimize them by endorsement in the Mountain, he should have subjected them to public participation," he said.
