Jubilee disciplinary summonses row as Tuju, Murathe differ

The Jubilee Party was on Wednesday fighting a conundrum over the identity of politicians summoned for disciplinary action and whether they had been fingered for a reprimand at all.

The ruling party’s secretary-general, Mr Raphael Tuju, told reporters it would be up to the disciplinary committee to determine whom to summon or punish even as those accused of indiscipline claimed he had assured them nothing of the sort would happen to them.

“It is the responsibility of that particular committee to do the summons,” said Mr Tuju.

The former Cabinet minister spoke at a press conference called to present the party’s new executive director Winnie Guchu, who until recently was a member of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

“If they have done the summoning, they have not brought it to my attention because they are also supposed to work independently,” said Mr Tuju, adding that they were free to make their summonses public.

RECENT CHAOS

The former Rarieda MP’s comments followed reports that the party had fingered Kirinyaga Governor Joseph Ndathi, his Murang’a colleague Mwangi wa Iria, Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko, Nakuru East MP David Gikaria and several members of the county assembly to show up at the party headquarters.

Those on the list were to explain their suspected hand in recent chaos at Jubilee meetings. They all deny the accusations, however, pinning the blame of witch-hunt back on the coat lapels of their rivals.

On Wednesday, party vice-chairman David Murathe claimed that Mr Wa Iria and Mr Sonko were required to explain why they allegedly sent goons to disrupt meetings at Murang’a Teachers Training College and Bomas of Kenya, respectively.

“If you disrupt a process, the selection of a county election board in Makuyu, because you brought in people who were not supposed to be part of that ... all we required in Makuyu were aspirants; you have to answer for that,” said Mr Murathe.

DISPUTED CLAIMS

He was referring to an incident on Saturday in Murang’a when a meeting to pick county election officials for the party, which was attended by Mr Wa Iria’s rival Jamleck Kamau, was disrupted by goons.

Also on Saturday, a group linked to Mr Sonko clashed with another loyal to his Nairobi gubernatorial ticket rival Peter Kenneth at Bomas on claims that there was a pre-determined list of board appointees.

But at the party’s headquarters in Pangani, Nairobi, on Wednesday, Governor Wa Iria disputed the claims as a summation of rumours on social media.

Then he turned to Mr Murathe: “He has no authority to talk about me. If there is something he has to talk about me, let him tell me in writing and I will deal with it.”
But Mr Murathe argued: “There is nothing like witch-hunt. We have to be very firm.

“There is no way one could tell the difference between Jubilee at Bomas and the ‘Men in Black’ (during aborted ODM elections on April 28, 2014) at (Safaricom Stadium) Kasarani.”