Fierce battle for President Kenyatta diary

An incident early last year in which a 5,000-strong delegation of members of the co-operative movement was locked out of State House, Nairobi, best demonstrates the turf wars that led to the ejection of the State House Comptroller and his replacement with former Nakuru governor Kinuthia Mbugua.

The group had been mobilised by Mr Joseph Nyagah, a one-time Co-operative minister, from all over the country to strategise on how to campaign for President Kenyatta’s re-election.

On the appointed day, the delegation was denied access to State House, an incident Mr Nyagah blamed on Mr Lenayapa, the then Comptroller. In protest, Mr Nyagah resigned from his job as President Kenyatta’s advisor.

“It was too much. This delegation from all over the country had been granted an appointment by the President. They had travelled from all over the country at their own cost. On the morning of the meeting, no one would pick our calls or provide an explanation. I wondered who these people were working for,” he told Nation, blaming the incident on Mr Lenayapa, who he accused of serving the interests of Deputy President William Ruto.

RESIGNED

When he finally resigned, Mr Nyagah made the famous statement: “There is no provision for a co-President in the Constitution”, alluding to the DP’s alleged grip on ongoings at State House through his men (read Lenayapa and company).

“I have tried my best to make a positive contribution but my efforts have been snubbed. Now if things go wrong, I wish Uhuru’s supporters to know what is going on. They should not blame me that I kept quiet...” he said.

Mr Nyagah was not alone. Scores of politicians across the country who lost in the Jubilee primaries early last year also blamed their defeat on Mr Ruto and his men at State House, who they claimed blocked them from reaching the President to tell him what was happening in the party. One such man is Kajiado politician Tarayia ole Kores.

“The President only got the true picture when TV footage of the shambolic primaries could not be suppressed any longer and the first round of primaries had to be called off. However, too much damage had been done and there was little time left to do anything meaningful,” said Mr Kores.

RIGGED OUT

At one time, a desperate Kores approached a senior Jubilee official complaining that he had been rigged out during the primaries. “Only the President can help you now. Call the President,” he was told.

The President could not be reached, said Mr Kores, who also blamed Mr Lenayapa for his failure to access the big man.

Mr Kenyatta’s decision to dispatch Mr Lenayapa — he grew up in the sweltering heat of Chalbi and Kargi deserts in Marsabit County — was the first bold political statement that something had shifted and it was no longer business as usual at State House.

Mr Lenayapa’s departure, according to sources at State House, was delayed by the exigencies of 2017 campaign realities.

He must have known he was marked for axing when the President took the unprecedented step to appoint Kinuthia Mbugua a co-comptroller last August, after intelligence reports emerged that certain constituencies the President had assumed had been his for the taking had not voted for him on August 8, but stayed at home or voted for opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Following Mr Mbugua’s appointment, individuals and goodwill delegations from several regions that had been blocked from accessing State House since the departure of former presidential advisor Nancy Gitau have been visiting State House in droves.

PETITION

Mr Lenayapa’s name popped up in nearly every political briefing and petition, with Mr Kenyatta’s allies complaining that he was doing the bidding of the United Republican Party (URP) at the expense of Mr Kenyatta’s allies.

Mr Lenayapa’s Rendille community has for long stuck with Mr Kenyatta since the days of the late Laisamis MP Titus Ngoyoni, and his successor Joseph Lekuton, among others, first in the opposition in Kanu, in Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) coalition, and later in Jubilee administration.

The comptroller was accused of having played a critical role in weakening TNA from inside, by leaning too much towards URP interests.

POLITICAL POWER

Mr Lenayapa’s power emanated from his role as the President’s diary keeper in-charge of facilitating appointments granted by the President to those who have sought his attention. This function comes with enormous political power as appointments can be expedited or frustrated on a whim to achieve political ends.

Since the acrimonious departure of Ms Gitau from her State House office in mid 2016, there were claims that politicians allied to TNA had been denied access to Mr Kenyatta. Ms Gitau resigned in a huff following fierce public attacks by close lieutenants of DP Ruto, after she had brokered high profile delegations of top Maa leadership led by Mr William Ntimama (the late), to defect from ODM and pledge support for Jubilee, but through the TNA axis.