President Uhuru Kenyatta will today fire key allies of his deputy Dr. William Ruto as the divorce between the country’s two top leaders continues to get messy.
This is after details of the purge in the Senate emerged just days after President Kenyatta signed a post-election deal with KANU Chairman Sen.Gideon Moi, setting the stage for major reshuffles in Uhuru’s government.
Set to be kicked out are vocal Majority Leader and Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen and the Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika who is the Majority Whip.
Ruto and Gideon are rivals who don’t see eye-to-eye and are both scheming to be the next at the helm when Uhuru’s term expires in 2022.
Our sources said that Jubilee could also rope in Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka in a similar deal that will change the face of cabinet as soon as Wednesday but some Jubilee operatives are still not comfortable with Kalonzo’s demand to join the Cabinet.
The talks between Uhuru and ODM leader Raila Odinga are collapsing since Odinga is said to be demanding a substantial stake in government.
Odinga’s demands are backed by the fact that it is only with ODM’s backing that Uhuru can withstand a political assault by the ruthless Ruto wing in both Houses of Parliament.
The President is set to chair a Jubilee Senate Parliamentary Group meeting where the proposed changes on Jubilee leadership would be made.
Senator Murkomen is a top member of Ruto’s 2022 strategy team and his ouster from the key position will be a staggering blow to the DP and will open flood gates for fierce battle between Uhuru and Ruto.
Another close ally of the DP is Senator Kihika from the Kikuyu community whose backing he desperately needs.
But Ruto is a great political schemer and already there are indications that Ruto and his allies may snub the meeting to deny Uhuru a quorum to make the changes as he (Uhuru) needs more than 50% of Jubilee Senators to effectively make the changes.
This will be happening as Senator Gideon will be leading his troops to the meeting as he formally becomes part of the government.
KB has learnt that Murkomen’s job would either go to Gideon, Uasin Gishu Senator Margaret Kamar or Senator Samuel Poghisio of West Pokot.
Kihika’S chief whip job will be given to her deputy, Muranga Senator Irungu Kanga’ta or Nairobi’s Johnson Sakaja.
Oustering Murkomen is a plan that has been on the cards for months after he became the president’s top critic, opposing all moves by the executive and declaring that the Kenyan Parliament is dead. gideon-moi-to-replace-murkomen
“I can confirm that Parliament is dead. It’s an extension of Executive and the opposition is causing stampede trying to be more government than the government itself,” Murkomen said
He also opposed the takeover of Nairobi county fiercely and accused the president’s administration of militarizing civil service.
“It is at a level where the functions of a county government can be largely, and more or less in whole, transferred to the national government. The county government is literally left as a shell with no functions to perform,” he protested.
In the Jubilee-Kanu post-election pact, the two parties have named several policies and objectives they have copied and pasted from the ‘handshake’.
