Raila Dalliance with Mt Kenya Causes Jitters in Jubilee

Opposition leader Raila Odinga’s dalliance with a section of Mt Kenya leaders has sent shockwaves in the Jubilee party and particularly on Deputy President William Ruto’s camp.

Last week, Odinga held a three-hour closed-door meeting with a group of former Mt Kenya MPs and businessmen, a move that has caused jitters in the ruling party. Some leaders allied to the Deputy President are seeing the move by Odinga as a ploy to scuttle Ruto’s 2022 presidential ambitions. 

Some Jubilee leaders led by Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua and Kirinyaga County Jubilee Party chairman Muriithi wa Kang’ara said they read mischief in Odinga’s meeting with the leaders last week.

“Some of us were apprehensive after the handshake between Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta,”  Gachagua told Daily Nation.

He added: “We were not sure whether or not Mr Odinga was genuine, and now he is trying to create mischief within Jubilee because we have elected leaders in Mt Kenya who should talk on behalf of the electorate. Those he met are politicians who were rejected by the people. Why is he trying to prop them up?”

Gachagua is of the view that the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader is determined to destabilize Jubilee Party ahead of 2022 polls and stop Ruto from taking over from President Kenyatta and place himself at a strategic position to succeed President Uhuru.

Former Tetu MP Ndung’u Gethenji, who was among the politicians who met with Raila in the city last week, denied that 2022 succession politics was an agenda in the session.

“We did not discuss President Kenyatta’s succession, but rather how his handshake with Mr Odinga came about and the consequent unification of the country,” said Gethenji. “We deliberated on ending the rift between Nyanza and Central and cooling the ethnic tensions in the country.”

Gachagua believes Odinga is about to do what he did to former President Mwai Kibaki, but maintained that Mt Kenya will stand with Ruto come what may. “Mr Odinga undermined Mr Kibaki from within,” said Gachagua.

Former Mukurwe-ini MP Kabando wa Kabando, who also attended the meeting with Odinga, accused a section of Central Kenya MPs allied to Ruto of being against national reconciliation.

“They sell-by date of Raila phobia in Mt Kenya was March 9th, 2018; and the same goes for Uhuru hate in Nasa strongholds,” he said. “The new Kenya will be extremely expensive to invest in corruption, tribalism, violence and disunity.”