Kanu set for summit amidst brewing issues

Trouble is brewing ahead of Friday's Kanu National Executive Council meeting in Naivasha, with calls for the censuring of the party’s secretary general Nick Salat.

At the same time, a group allied to the party’s vice-chairman Gideon Moi is planning to use the meeting to censure Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta for failing to convene such a meeting for over three years.

But Mr Kenyatta’s allies are determined to use the meeting to chart the future of the party ahead of the 2012 elections.

The DPM, who is the party chairman, convened the meeting through invitations sent out last week to the surprise of many who have been expecting him to ditch the party.

Mr Salat intends to stop the meeting on claims that he was not consulted and has asked its sponsors, the National Democratic Institute, to cancel it.

But organising secretary Justin Muturi, has defended Mr Kenyatta saying, “the chairman is mandated by the party constitution to convene such meetings. It confirms to all that he has never had any plans to move from Kanu as had been claimed by some people”.

Mr Salat will be asked to explain why he allegedly conspired with other parties to deny Kanu the Centre for Multi-Party Democracy chairmanship.

Mr Kenyatta had proposed Mr Muturi for the seat but Mr Salat supported another party’s candidate. However, Mr Muturi was proposed by PNU and won the polls.

Kanu officials mostly allied to Mr Moi said that they no longer trust Mr Kenyatta as the party’s leader on claims that he had deliberately abandoned Kanu for the last four years and frustrated its operations.

“We are affiliated to PNU but the chairman has in the past chosen to stick to the alliance even when leaders of other affiliate parties were fielding parliamentary and civic candidates in by-elections,” Mr Salat said.

Mr Kenyatta is set to face his critics when he opens the retreat at the Great Rift Valley Lodge.

He has invited the council and PNU MPs who are members of the party for the two-day meeting.