• MP Kuttuny said at least 30 MPs from the larger Rift Valley will attend.
• Retreat to take place at Maasai Lodge in Kajiado where Ruto’s lieutenants had initially booked
Image: DPPS
The anti-DP William Ruto brigade from Rift Valley has organised a parallel retreat to that of the DP’s troops taking place in Naivasha.
In what appears to be a show of might and to gauge political might ahead of the 2022 poll, the Jubilee rebel MPs have teamed up with their colleagues from Kanu, Chama Cha Mashinani and ODM for a retreat to study and take a position on the BBI report.
Allies of the DP, however, dismissed the retreat as one of self-seeking individuals sponsored by anti-Ruto forces within the government.
Soi MP Caleb Kositany and Belgut's Nelson Koech described the meeting as a nonstarter aimed at sowing divisions.
“I challenge you to go and count them. Look at the people who will attend the meeting. They are people who have accepted to be sponsored by people known to be unhappy with the organisation we have shown as Rift Valley,” Koech said.
Kositany said their retreat was not a competition and they were free to meet and take any position they want.
“What we are seeing is not new to us. The people in that group are the same people who have been used by the people well known to the public to undermine the DP. Nonetheless, they are free. The one thing their sponsors should know is that they putting their funds in a failing venture,” he said.
The retreat whose chief organiser is Cherangany MP Joshua Kuttuny will take place at Maasai Lodge in Kajiado county–coincidently where Ruto’s lieutenants had initially booked.
Kuttuny last night said at least 30 MPs from the larger Rift Valley will attend.
“All is set for tomorrow (Friday). We have like-minded leaders from all the counties in Rift Valley and we will look at the BBI report then later share our resolutions with Kenyans,” Kuttuny said.
He said the leaders set to attend the retreat have all along been championing for the common interests of the people of Rift Valley. He termed the group meeting in Naivasha as "sycophants who don't have the interests of the region at heart".
“The issues that have been captured in the report are some of the things we have rooted for individually and as a team. We are after the good of Rift Valley,” he told the Star on phone.
As of last evening, it was not clear if Kanu chairman and Baringo Senator Gideon Moi would attend the meeting but among those who had confirmed attendance are MPs Alfred Keter (Jubilee, Nandi Hills), William Kamket (Kanu, Tiaty), Elijah Memusi (ODM, Kajiado Central), Silas Tiren (Jubilee, Moiben) and Peris Tobiko (Jubilee, Kajiado East).
Others are CCM leader and former Bomet Governor Isaac Rutto, former MPs Zakayo Cheruiyot (Kuresoi South), Musa Sirma ( Eldama Ravine), Paul Sang (Buret), businessman Zedekiah Bundotich aka Buzeki, former Kajiado governor David Nkadienye and Kanu secretary general Nick Salat.
Both Kuttuny and Kamket, way before the formation of the BBI task force, had sponsored different bills proposing a change of government system to parliamentary.
Kuttuny, in his March 2019 Constitutional Amendment bill which seems to have died over time, proposed the scrapping of the position of Leader of Majority in Parliament and the return of Prime Minister's post.
The legislator also proposed that the President, Deputy President and Cabinet Secretaries all be elected members of the National Assembly.
On the other hand, Kamket’s bill -which set the chorus for constitutional change – was proposing the creation of a position of an executive PM and a ceremonial president serving a single seven-year term.
Nandi Hills' Keter, who has lately maintained a low profile, said he was not aware of the pro-Ruto MPs' meeting neither was he invited.
Picking the cue from President Uhuru Kenyatta who on Wednesday accused Ruto's allies of politicising the BBI report, Keter said their review of the report will be independent.
“We have experts who will be taking us through the report. Those in Naivasha are free to hold theirs. The President is tired of politics and he wants us to help him fix issues affecting Kenyans,” Keter said.
Kamket said though he was rooting for a pure parliamentary system, he was happy with the proposed hybrid system which he said will address his concerns.
“In Rift Valley, we have two leaders-William Ruto and Gideon Moi. We are meeting to sieve through the report so that we take an informed position that is in the best interest of not just Rift Valley but Kenya at large,” he said.
He added, “Under the parliamentary system, there is much accountability. This mixed system proposed is fine but Parliament is the epitome of sovereignty.”
Tiren said he was only aware of the Kajiado retreat saying he did not receive an invite for that in Naivasha.