A section of President’s allies push for Jubilee leadership overhaul
A section of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s allies in Central Kenya region yesterday pushed for a leadership overhaul in the Jubilee Party.
About 30 MPs and MCAs led by Kieni MP Kanini Kega, Nyeri Town’s Ngunjiri Wambugu, Jude Njomo (Kiambu Town) and Sabina Chege (Murang’a Woman Rep), converged at Windsor Country Club, where they resolved to strengthen, rejuvenate and rebrand the Jubilee Party.
They intend to conduct grassroots elections and pushing for a National Delegates Conference to decide on the fate of the party’s secretary general Raphael Tuju and vice chairman David Murathe.
Without specifically calling for the removal of the duo, the leaders’ choice of words projected a team, keen to have the two ejected, with Kega saying “no one in Jubilee should sit pretty because they only suspended the ouster.
“We will be evaluating party officials and if we feel that the moment you open your mouth, the party loses popularity, we will deal with you. We only postponed whatever we started,” Kega said.
Immediately after the Kiambaa defeat where Njuguna Wanjiku of United Democratic Alliance (UDA) associated with Deputy President William Ruto beat Jubilee’s Kariri Njama, Kega, Wambugu and Sabina trained their guns on Murathe and Tuju saying they were to blame.
Njomo said the party was in need of a leadership overhaul to bring fresh, vibrant, youthful and persuasive leadership.
He said they had agreed to clean the grassroots party leadership by replacing those that have betrayed the course and abandoned the ship, with those who are loyal to the party before dealing with the national officials.
Unity pact
But Murathe, who is leading the crafting of a unity pact with Orange Democratic Movement rubbished the push, describing it as selfish and detrimental to the party.
He said the leaders blaming party officials for the Kiambaa by-elections are actually to blame, saying they were sufficiently financed to deliver the seat but failed.
“Anyway, we are in those offices on an interim basis, having been appointed by the President.
If they are tired of us, let them pick the phones, call the party leader and tell him they are unhappy with us,” Murathe told People Daily.
Sabina, who was among those who led the unsuccessful campaigns in Kiambaa, said they have a feeling that the wrong people are leading the party.
“It is open to Kenyans what is ailing Jubilee. As elected leaders, we want to strengthen our party from the grassroots and if our people will say these are the people we want or don’t want, we will follow them,” she said.
