Expulsion of rebel senators, Kangata’s ouster good for Kieleweke, Tangatanga and country
By MICHAEL CHERAMBOS
It finally happened.
Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang’ata was fired from his Majority Whip seat in what looks like the latest casualty in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party purge against MPs showing blatant disloyalty. Mr Kang’ata sacking came just a day after six other senators with no loyalty to the ruling party were told to walk, no, pushed out of the party.
But as this happened, other senators who have left Jubilee for United Democratic Alliance but are yet to cultivate the balls to tender resignations were crying out loud that the eviction party was not as grand or polite as they would have wished.
On Monday, the Jubilee party expelled, albeit belatedly, six senators it had nominated to Parliament after a long winded period of chest-thumping and outright disobedience to party structures and disrespect to its leadership. Those expelled were Isaac Mwaura, Mary Seneta, Falhada Dekow Iman, Naomi Jillo Waqo, Victor Prengei and Millicent Omanga. These six, and others whose eviction is eminent, have never wasted a chance to ridicule Jubilee calling it a shell, deal, disorganize among other derogatory terms.
Like many others who are still grumbling from “the shell” it seems these seven senators- including Kangata- are just crybabies who do not yet know what they want. You, see Mwaura, Omanga and their ilk have been going around claiming their supporters- strange because they were not voted by anyone- have been urging them to follow a certain leaning that is different from what Jubilee stands. But no sooner had the party helped them out of a home they said they didn’t like than they started wailing.
The six have since run to the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal and obtained orders restraining their removal from the Jubilee membership until the matter is heard and determined. It is imperative to note that the six were party of 139 other leaders who, on the same Monday, announced their allegiance to UDA, a competing political party.
Just what do this people want?
As I have admitted in this space before, Kenyan politics never ceases to amaze.
A politician will continually complain how he does not subscribe to policies of a political party he belongs to but still cling to the party membership. They will “differ” with the position of the party on a particular motion that is being tabled on the floor of Parliament and still insist on leading the same party’s argument in the House.
Mr Kang'ata rose to the position following last year’s de-whipping of senators affiliated to Tangatanga faction. He replaced Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika during a session that was characterised by tear-shedding and loyalty pledging by the outgoing and incoming respectively.
It’s interesting how things change. Kang’ata is not only crying foul after he was relieved of that nauseating duty of having to defend what he does not believe in, a party he does not subscribe to, but those he replaced are crying the loudest over “his ouster”.
During the Jubilee Senate Parliamentary Group meeting held at the KICC at which Mr Kang’ata was shoved off, nine senators staged a walkout in solidarity with him, faulting the purge as unprocedural and illegal. They included Elgeyo-Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen, former committee chairs John Kinyua (Devolution), Samson Cherargei (Justice and Legal Affairs), Christopher Lagat (Education) and Mithika Linturi (vice chair JLAC who were all kicked out in a similar manner before Kang’ata and a new team took over. He replaced Senator Susan Kihika of Nakuru.
Kang’ata says his woes began with his December 30 2020 open letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta warning him that the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) was bound to flop in Mt Kenya region, which was published by the media on January 4. He alleges he started receiving phone calls from “all powerful institutions in this government demanding that he renounces the letter and be funded to go to the grassroots and speak well of BBI, all of which he refused.
That is partly true because, according to Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju, Kang’ata’s biggest leadership failure was sharing of confidential party information with media, which resulted in the loss of trust among colleagues.
“Kang’ata’s removal has nothing to do with the BBI, but his opinion as a JP parliamentary leader and the way he conducted himself,” said Tuju as he read the former Majority Whip’s matching orders, adding: “There should be decorum and ways of addressing issues when you talk to the leadership involving the President,”.
I can’t agree more.
Michael Cherambos comments on topical socio-political issues; [email protected]
