Tanga Tanga brigade, a faction of Jubilee politicians allied to the Deputy President William Ruto have stepped up their vigour in handling Jubilee matters and the BBI politics to prove useful when 2022 cards are pulled.
The Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju is recuperating after sustaining serious injuries in a car crash and therefore absent from the party affairs and therefore leaving his deputy Caleb Koitany who is a key ally of DP Ruto to run the show and take charge of party affairs.
Right now the DP’s allied politicians are demanding that President Uhuru Kenyatta must attend BBI rallies if they really mean to give their views on how best to unite Kenya.
This is a tricky situation for the president as BBI is the only visible product of the ”handshake” between him and the ODM chief Raila Odinga, who Ruto’s allies say has no grounds to receive views from the Deputy President.
If President Kenyatta bows to the demand and attends the March 21 rally in Nakuru, he will find himself in a situation where he will have to choose between Ruto and Raila but the president would not prefer that now.
Tanga tanga politicians led by Mr Kositany argue that the rallies have degenerated into a shouting contest and therefore needs some order that can only be brought by the president.
The March 21 rally will be held at the historic Afraha Stadium and will host residents of 11 counties in the rift, including Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Bomet, Kericho, Trans Nzoia, Elgeyo-Marakwet, West Pokot, Baringo, Laikipia and Turkana.
Koitany said that the President should attend the Nakuru rally for one specific reason that it is the melting pot of Kenyan politics, the headquarters of the Rift Valley which is the most populous region in Kenya that voted for Uhuru almost to a man.
BBI report was unveiled in November last year then followed by these regional rallies that have all been attended by Raila Odinga but the president has never been to any.
Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria however said that if the president were to attend then he should not attend as the Head of State but like any other ordinary Kenyan while Cherang’any MP Joshua Kutuny, a vocal supporter of the BBI from the Rift Valley has dismissed the calls for President Kenyatta to attend the BBI rallies noting that the president can only join in if the document is headed to a referendum.
“The President can come at the point when we have a draft bill and are ready to go for a referendum,” said Hon. Kutuny.
Outspoken Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi said BBI was President Kenyatta’s “political masterstroke”.
“When historians write about the life and times of President Kenyatta, they will realise that the BBI story was his biggest political masterstroke: Allow your political friends and enemies to fight while watching from a distance and without really expressing your views on the subject,” Abdullahi wrote on his Twitter handle.
Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen who is a strong and vocal ally of the DP Ruto said that he will attend the Nakuru rally but he is not aware of the organizers or conveners. He also decried that the BBI rallies are championed by shadowy people who are against allies of the deputy president. That he said, was deviating the initiative from uniting Kenyans to driving personal political agenda.
”These are just ODM rallies but they wont admit it” Murkomen said.
But political analyst, Prof. Herman Manyora observes that the push to have the president attend the BBI rallies is highest level of political desperation.
Tanga tanga bigwigs want to invite the president knowing very well that he will not heed that call so later on they will change narrative to make it look like the president does not fully support BBI.
They will also use the president’s presence to reduce everybody else to a mere guest including the opposition leader Raila Odinga who has been crowing the rallies by attending as the chief guest.
