Uhuru visits Moi at Kabarak, holds meeting with Gideon

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday paid a courtesy call to retired President Daniel Moi at his Kabarak home in Nakuru County.

The visit comes barely two months after Deputy President William Ruto was blocked from meeting him.

Details of the closed-door meeting were scanty but a brief statement from Mzee Moi’s office indicated that President Kenyatta wished the retired President quick recovery from a recent surgery on his knee.

“Mzee Moi, on the other hand, thanked President Kenyatta for steering the country to the path of unity,” said a statement.

In attendance was Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, who is the Kanu chairman.

PHYSIOTHERAPY

The President was on his way to the home of Lieutenant General Joseph Kasaon, for the funeral service of his wife, Mrs Sarah Kasaon, who succumbed to kidney failure.

Yesterday’s Kabarak meeting is likely to send tongues wagging after Mr Ruto was snubbed in May, an incident which did not go down well with his supporters who read a wider scheme to undermine him politically.

Mzee Moi’s office explained then that the retired President could not meet Mr Ruto as he was undergoing a routine physiotherapy session with his doctors for the entire duration of the visit.

Mr Ruto was accompanied by Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter, Ainabkoi MP William Chepkut and lawyer Stephen Kipkenda. A statement from the former president’s office said Mzee Moi had offered to meet the DP at a later date.

DETAILS SCANTY

“Deputy President William Ruto today visited the former President. Mr Ruto and his team were welcomed and had lunch at Mzee’s Kabarak home. “Unfortunately, this coincided with the time Mzee Moi was undergoing routine physical exercise with his doctors. Mzee Moi agreed to meet him at a convenient time another day in the very near future,” read the statement.

Earlier in April, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga also held a meeting with the former President at his Kabarak home.

Though details of the meeting were scanty, his party divulged that the two leaders consulted on the current state of political affairs in Kenya.

2022 POLLS

Mr Odinga was accompanied by Mvita MP Abdulswamwad Shariff and Vihiga Senator George Khaniri. The meeting lasted about one hour.

Senator Moi and the DP have had a protracted battle for control of the Rift Valley vote ahead of 2022 polls.

Though the junior Moi has not publicly declared he will vie for the presidency, it is widely believed that Kanu will enter into an alliance with like-minded parties.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said people should not read much in the visit, adding that as the former Head of State recovers, he was expected to receive many visitors, including President Kenyatta.

MAU EVICTIONS

He, however, said organisers of such visits should not be selective on who meets the former President. "People who want to visit him should be allowed to do so. It should not be done in a selective way," he said.

In South Rift, the visit elicited mixed reactions, with some speculating that it could have something to do with the ongoing Mau evictions that have seen nearly 10,000 people homeless in Narok while others believe it was simply a courtesy call to check on his health.

Mr Joel Soi, a political science lecturer at Maasai Mara University said President Kenyatta could have visited to reaffirm that the quest to have Gideon succeed him in 2022 was still intact. Also, he could have gone to seek goodwill on the Mau evictions, knowing well that Kiptagich Farm, owned by the Moi family, is in Mau, he said.

DOCUMENTATION

He could have gone to assure him that the property would not be touched. Considering Mzee Moi's age, news about losing the property could affect him,” said Mr Soi.

“The government is now taking the Mau evictions to the next phase, where it is asking those with title deeds to surrender the land. Mr Kenyatta could have gone to Kabarak to straighten things out, like legal arrangements or documentation of the Moi land,” he said.