Ruto forms new party to face Raila

ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi

Those who advance Ruto forming his own outfit give one case study of Bukhungu BBI meeting. The meeting was to be boycotted by ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and his Ford-K counterpart Moses Wetang’ula.

The two were co-principals in Nasa that fronted for Raila 2017. The decision for them to plan a parallel rally in Mumias that was cancelled by state security agencies that would have brought them together with Ruto sympathisers in Western signified a lot.

Mudavadi and Wetang’ula are aware that Raila’s ODM is working for his fifth stab at the presidency in 2022 in alliance with Senator Gideon Moi of Kanu and a section of Jubilee linked to president Uhuru Kenyatta. Wiper leader kalonzo Musyoka is not in the equation.

The trio all own political parties with only the DP who has none of his own. Weekly Citizen has information that Uhuru is aware of the embarrassment Mudavadi and Wetang’ula could have created by skipping BBI Bukhungu rally and he had to personally prevail over to Mudavadi on phone to attend.

Moses Wetangula

But the events ahead of the Kakamega rally opened eyes to Ruto strategists, that Mudavadi and Wetang’ula will never join Raila bandwagon 2022 as they attended the rally not to be seen to disrespect Uhuru as he had personally intervened.

The case of BBI Kitui is fresh in minds of Ruto allies. Wiper leader Kalonzo was sidelined in favour of Governor Charity Ngilu at the behest of Raila. The Kitui rally just like the Meru rally has left the two regions deeply divided politically.

Then two, since he does not own any party, the need to form one was long overdue but the DP is playing behind scenes in its formation. Jubilee party leader is Uhuru and former chairman is David Murathe who at one time claimed to have resigned but no replacement has been made.

In fact documents at Registrar of Political Parties show Murathe is the party chair and has still been calling shots at the headquarters. The secretary general is Raphael Tuju.

Ruto is the deputy party leader. Going by the happenings at the party, Ruto who managed 2017 party nominations has lost control of the party being at loggerheads with his boss, Murathe and Tuju. Word has it that Ruto does not even know where the party registration certificate is kept and he was dreaming using it 2022 in his presidential bid at one time.

Without the party certificate in his hands, then Ruto must think out of Jubilee box. Remember the scramble over ODM-K party certificate involving Raila and Kalonzo in 2013. Ruto has also been meeting financiers for his 2022 presidential bid to explore ways of raising sufficient financial muscle to outdo Raila whom he has marked as his main challenger.

David Murathe

The deputy president has held several strategy meetings with his strategists, legal advisers and selected politicians to craft his 2022 roadmap where various options have been laid on the table. One of the options discussed at length is the possibility of the DP abandoning the Jubilee Party to form a new political outfit to be his vehicle for the 2022 polls.

This option is further informed by the fact that the deputy president is now unwanted character in the Jubilee where the party’s top command has made it clear that he is no their choice and they have the blessings of Uhuru to vanquish him. This is in reference to Murathe, who has repeatedly asserted that the president will not hand over power to “a thief”.

The thinking in Ruto’s camp is that Murathe, a close ally of the president, speaks Uhuru’s mind and thus Ruto risks being denied the ruling party’s ticket to contest the presidency.

This option is also informed by the realisation that Jubilee party’s presidential candidate will carry the baggage of Uhuru’s multitude of failures and thus he or she will be defending a tainted legacy to a tired and frustrated electorate.

Some of the Jubilee government failures include not honouring the pledge to give pupils laptops, failure to make the country food secure, lopsided war on corruption, ethnic balkanisation and mounting local and international debt and the inability to construct stadiums in 47 counties as pledged.

The strategists want Ruto to lead his troops in decamping from the Jubilee party a few months to the 2022 general election. Ruto strategists have also explored the option of reactivating the United Republican Party which together with Uhuru’s TNA and a host of other parties folded up to form the Jubilee Party.

Insiders say Ruto has agreed with the team that it will be futile for him to continue pinning his hopes on the ruling party. Initially, the deputy president had planned to take full control of Jubilee party during the party’s elections which have since been put off indefinitely.

This saw his associates start the push to wrestle control of the party from the president, citing the head of state’s absence from the campaign trenches during the hotly contested Kibra by-election as proof that he was no longer interested in its affairs.

The Ruto allies, who include Nandi governor Stephen Sang and the area senator Samson Cherargei, also argued that the DP needed to control the party to protect it from Raila’s attempts to vanquish it. The deputy president believed he had the numbers to wrestle control of the party and thus pushed for elections so that he could kick out Uhuru’s perceived henchmen from the helm through the ballot.

His allies pointed out that in the Kibra byelection that was easily won by Imran Okoth of ODM, Jubilee members allied to Uhuru supported Orange candidate while the DP men supported their candidate, footballer-turnedpolitician McDonald Mariga.

It is this infighting in the ruling party that has forced Ruto to abandon the idea of using the party’s elections to put his allies in key positions choosing instead to form a new outfit. The Jubilee party elections which were slated for March this year and billed to be a do-or-die for the DP have been put off indefinitely. Insiders have it that the meetings have also discussed at length the pro and cons of relaunching URP.

But insiders revealed that Ruto’s strategists have ruled out URP’s revival due to legal implications. They have expressed fears that the party’s revival can be successfully challenged in court which will throw a spanner into the works.

The revival of URP, they have concluded, will be playing into their enemies hands. Insiders add that the meetings have also explored the possibility of Ruto taking over a number of registered parties as his enemies are likely to block registration of a party associated to the DP.

Kipchumba Murkomen

The Party being targeted is Economic Freedom Party. The EFP was established in March 2017 by politicians from Mandera county who included Senator Billow Kerrow and MPs Mohamed Huka and Fathia Mabub after they left URP and the Jubilee alliance. Another party that features in the deal is that of Umoja Summit Party whose party leader is former cabinet secretary Suleiman Shakombo. Naomi Sidi is party interim secretary. Jubilee former Mombasa branch chairman Matano Chengo has defected from USP. The party targets the Mijikenda vote bloc to fight the dominance of Arabs in coastal politics. Raila has a soft spot for monied Arab tycoons whom he wants to control Coast politics. Those being considered as interim officials of the yet to be named new DP’s political outfit include Elgeyo Marakwet senator Kipchumba Murkomen as the secretary general to cater for the interests of the Kalenjins.

Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa

Kirinyaga woman representative Purity Ngirici is featuring prominently in the list of those to be considered for a top post. Ngirici, a close ally of DP and who currently chairs the Kenya parliamentary women caucus, is being considered for EFP’s national women leader’s post.

Mumias East MP Benjamin Washiali name features together with that of national assembly leader Aden Duale to cater for the Luhya and Somali communities interests. Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa is also being touted just as Isiolo woman representative Rehema Jaldesa with her counterpart Kitui South MP Rachael Nyamai. Meru senator Mithika Linturi will land a big slot. Others are Narok woman representative Soipan Tuya and Nyaribari Chache MP Richard Tongi. Other positions that will be dished out to ensure regional representation are that of national youth leader, the national leader of persons with disabilities and professional groups, among others.

DP William Ruto with former Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale when he defected to jubilee meeting, Malinya

Former Kakamega senator Bonne Kwalwale, a former Ford K deputy party leader is on the list. Insiders add that another card the meetings have laid on the table is for Ruto to take over former Agriculture cabinet secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri’s new party -The Service Party. To spite Uhuru, Kiunjuri finalised the registration of the party days after he was sacked as Agriculture cabinet secretary. The president fired and replaced Kiunjuri immediately when he announced new members of his cabinet in January this year. Initially, the plan was to have the DP take over Chama Cha Mashinani headed by former Bomet governor Isaac Rutto.

Buzeki

However, this possibility is being ruled out since Rutto, according to the meetings resolutions, cannot be trusted. CCM is now associated with Rift Valley billionaires and politicians who the DP sidelined. They are David Langat, Joshua Kulei, Zedekiah Bundotich Kiprop, alias Buzeki, and Silas Simotwo, Zakayo Cheruyoit, Franklin Bett and Kiprono Kittony.

As Raila is planning revival of ODM as one popular party just as Ruto at one time wanted Jubilee to be, it has dawned on the DP strategists that forming a new party and entering into an alliance with others in power sharing formula once a new constitution with political offices of prime minister and deputy comes in power is the only way out 2022 political matrix.