Democratic Party wades into 2022 succession talk

The more President Uhuru Kenyatta tells Jubilee Party members and leaders to quit speculating about his succession, the more political talk escalates.

Last Thursday, the President threatened to sack Cabinet secretaries involved in politics.

The warning came just a few days after Laikipia woman representative Catherine Waruguru told a public gathering attended by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri in Nyahururu that the former Grand National Union leader was fit to play kingpin for the Mt Kenya region once President Kenyatta exited the scene.

A day earlier, President Kenyatta’s maternal uncle and a founding trustee of the Democratic Party, Mr George Muhoho, used a funeral platform in Nyeri County to wade into the “handshake” politics that had set the Mt Kenya region alight with succession politics, saying the President had not abandoned his core Jubilee allies after reaching out to Opposition leader Raila Odinga.

In an apparent effort to pacify supporters of Deputy President William Ruto that their man will not be short-changed in the Building Bridges and "Handshake" politics, Mr Muhoho urged calm in the face of proposals to change the Constitution to disperse executive Presidential powers to additional offices.

NYAKERA

Using cryptic Kikuyu and Biblical idioms, he said: “Kaba andu maingihe, nyama inyihe (its better to have more people in a feast than more meat and few people).”

Reaching out to the opposition to look for lost sheep did not mean the President had abandoned the sheep he already had at home, added the former Catholic priest and scholar.

During the event in Othaya, home to retired President Mwai Kibaki, former Principal Secretary and newly installed DP deputy party leader Irungu Nyakera was publicly introduced by former Othaya MP Mary Wambui.

It was the first time he had joined political leaders in a public event since assuming his new post.

Though Mr Nyakera may not have national leadership ambitions as yet, his installation as DP deputy party leader has been viewed as part of plans in refurbishing the outfit in readiness for succession politics horse trading in the event that internal tensions inside Jubilee Party escalated into a fallout ahead of 2022 general election.

BY-ELECTION

Already, the Democratic Party has waded into Nairobi politics after it emerged that it had issued a nomination certificate to businessman Rameshchandra Govino Gorasi as its candidate for the forthcoming by-election in Embakasi South constituency, following an announcement by Jubilee that it would not field a candidate.

Mr Gorisa was the owner of Taj Mall (renamed Airgate Mall) that was demolished by the government last September after it was found to have been built on a road reserve.

By choosing to field a candidate in Embakasi South, the Democratic Party intends to test the waters to see if it could inherit the city’s Mt Kenya voting bloc currently associated with Jubilee.

Another development likely to fuel more political excitement in the Mt Kenya region is the announcement by the Party of National Unity (PNU) that it would hold a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Tuesday to set dates for party elections to fill vacant and disputed positions.

REVIVAL

On January 8, the chairman of the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal Kyalo Mbobu directed the registrar of politics parties Njeri Nderitu to ensure that PNU holds party elections in 90 days to end the wrangles and multiple disputes lodged before the tribunal for the last three years.

“The NEC meets on Tuesday to set dates for a National Delegates Convention to pick new party officials and fill vacant positions left by those who joined other parties in 2017. Once this happens, PNU will be in a position to prepare for 2022,” said acting PNU chairman and former Rubani trade union secretary general Paul Rukaria.

The party elections are bound to bring in a crop of new players and further gnaw into the Mt Kenya, currently claimed by Jubilee and which has been moribund on the ground with no grassroots structures save for individuals elected to political offices in 2017.