Baringo Senator Gideon Moi is revving up his Kanu party machinery in readiness for the political realignments ahead of the 2022 General Election.
According to party officials, Moi is adopting a two-pronged approach which will see him revamp his party and also build his national profile.
He is poised to play a major role in the Uhuru-Raila handshake deal and neutralize Deputy President William Ruto’s influence in the Rift Valley.
For starters, he is expected to visit Nyanza next month to “thank the people of Nyanza for the handshake and for accepting Raila Odinga’s decision to work with President Uhuru Kenyatta”.
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An advance party led by Kanu Secretary General Nick Salat is this Sunday expected to join his ODM counterpart Edwin Sifuna at a church service in Siaya.
Moi is also planning to visit the coast region where he will be hosted by Mombasa governor and ODM deputy party leader Ali Hassan Joho.
“After Mombasa, we will attend a church service in Nyeri or Muranga at a date to be announced next month. We believe our party leader is the best man to succeed Uhuru,’ said Salat yesterday.
The son of the second President also intends to fill vacancies in the party and bring on board well-known politicians across the country to take up key positions.
“We will continue to support President Uhuru Kenyatta to deliver his big four agenda. But even as we do that the party will start to prepare itself to play a big role in 2022,” West Pokot governor John Lonyangapuo said yesterday.
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Kanu’s fortunes have plummeted since it lost power in 2002 and is today a pale shadow of the former powerhouse.
As a vehicle for 2022 presidential ambitions, Moi will have to work extra hard to rebuild and market the party across the country.
According to the plan, the party will start recruitment of members across the country in July, followed by grassroots elections early 2019 ahead of national elections midyear.
Of immediate concern to Moi’s team is how to check Ruto who is building a vast financial and political muscle ahead of 2022.
He is consolidating his Kalenjin community base and has embarked on an aggressive campaign to establish links with other communities and regions in the country.
“We plan to tour every part of Rift Valley and to tell the people that Gideon Moi will be on the ballot in 2022 so they should not be misled by anyone that only Ruto will be on the ballot,” said Emurua Dikir (Kanu) MP Johana Ng’eno.
After NASA leader Raila Odinga visited retired President Daniel Moi two weeks ago, Ruto allies unleashed a verbal onslaught on the Senator, insisting that the region will only back the DP.
Senate Majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen accused Gideon of denying MPs opposed to him appointments to see the elderly Moi.
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RIVALRY
Supremacy battles between Moi and Ruto have been playing out periodically in the region.
The rivalry was so intense in the last election that Ruto personally campaigned in Baringo and other areas with perceived Kanu support to win a majority of the county assembly, parliamentary and gubernatorial seats.
Still, Kanu trounced Jubilee to retain the key positions of Governor and Senator in West Pokot, which went to Prof John Lonyangapuo and Samuel Poghisio respectively.
“We intend to build on these gains as we move to the next election,” said Poghisio yesterday.
In Baringo, Moi retained his position despite a tough campaign mounted by Water Cabinet Secretary Samson Chelgui who was personally supported by Ruto.
In Tiaty, William Kamket of Kanu defeated Ruto’s ally and sitting MP Asman Kamama.
Jubilee lost
all county assembly seats in Tiaty constituency to Kanu.
Ruto’s ally Stanley Kiptis however defeated Kanu’s Isaac Chebon to become governor of Baringo while Kanu took the Woman Representative seat through Gladwell Cheruiyot.
“We believe Kanu’s future is bright
that is why we have agreed to
start marketing the party aggressively,” former minister Poghisio said.
The former ruling party, formed in 1960, has paled into oblivion with every passing election as its leading lights either lost and left the political scene or moved on to set up new political outfits. Uhuru and Ruto were in Kanu when the party lost power to the Kibaki-led united opposition Narc.
Before the last election President Uhuru’s mother, Mama Ngina, visited the former Presdient Moi amid speculation that the party was about to back the opposition NASA led by Raila.
Uhuru’s owes his meteoric rise to the presidency to the elder Moi. He plucked him from obscurity and elevated him through the ranks, above experienced politicians, to the top as Kanu’s presidential candidate in 2002. Moi was probably returning a favour Uhuru’s father and Kenya’s founding president, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, had done him in the formative years of his career. Kenyatta appointed him Vice-President in 1967 and stuck with him to death despite plots by courtiers to dislodge him.
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