•The party national chairman has planned meetings with delegates across the country as part of the wider plan to make the ‘Jogoo party great again.’
•Key in the plan is the re-branding and renaming of the country’s oldest political outfit to shed off the jinx that has been associated with it. The outfit’s name is set to be changed to Kanu-Fresh.
Image: COLLINS KWEYU
Details have emerged of Gideon Moi’s elaborate plan to revamp and re-brand Kanu to take on Deputy President William Ruto for the country’s top seat.
Inside sources have revealed that Gideon has lined up a series of political activities aimed at rejuvenating the moribund independence party in readiness for the 2022 General Election.
The party national chairman has planned meetings with delegates across the country as part of the wider plan to make the ‘Jogoo party great again.’
Delegations had already streaming to Kabarak before public gatherings were banned due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Key in the plan is the re-branding and renaming of the country’s oldest political outfit to shed off the jinx that has been associated with it and registration of members. It is set to be renamed Kanu-Fresh.
The party, which ruled the country for 39 years between 1963 and 2002, has had a really dark side. Its longest-serving leader, late former President Daniel Moi, was accused of oppression and detention of those who opposed its ideals.
However, Gideon is out to ‘cleanse’ all this to give it fresh blood that can propel it back to power.
“We have gone full cycle. We are retracing our roots. We are changing the name to Kanu-Fresh,” Tiaty MP William Kamket, a Gideon’s confidant, told the Star.
Kanu members familiar with the rejuvenation also confirmed that the planned activities will culminate in re-naming of the outfit to Kanu-Fresh.
Gideon, who is also the Baringo senator, has also embarked on creating networks with ‘like-minded leaders’ for a formidable alliance.
Two weeks ago, he said Kanu had ‘big plans for 2022’ and that it had been traversing the country to create linkages with like-minded partners.
“As Kanu, we have been in the opposition for long and our plan is to be in government come 2022. As things stand now, we are in a good position to form the next government,” he told a delegation of 200 people from Baringo Central who had visited him on March 7.
The delegation urged him to rise to the occasion and take the political mantle from his father.
ODM leader Raila Odinga, Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka, ANC boss Musalia Mudavadi and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho are some of the political heavyweights that Kanu is reaching out to form an alliance to beat DP Ruto.
Their coziness has been witnessed in the Building Bridges Initiative mobilisation and sensitisation rallies. They have rallied behind the initiative, sidelining the DP, who has dismissed the rallies as a waste of public resources.
Political analysts Steve Ogolla and Martin Andati observe that Gideon is trying to create a niche for himself in readiness for a top seat in the expanded Executive — based on BBI discussions.
“Gideon is eyeing a bigger seat in 2022. Kanu diehards Francis Atwoli and Nick Salat all said they are going to revamp the party. In the new arrangement, I think they are supposed to give him a key post, either Deputy President or something in the expanded Executive,” Andati said
The activities come barely a month after the Baringo senator was handed a rungu, a political baton, by his elder brother, Raymond, during the burial of their father, Moi.
“The cock himself has gone. And if he is gone, I will give Gideon this baton. If he plays with it, I will be here. I am not a statue,” Raymond, who is the Rongai MP, said during the burial in Kabarak.
The activities officially kicked off a fortnight ago when Gideon hosted more than 1,000 party delegates from at least nine counties in the larger Mt Kenya region at their Kabarak home in Nakuru county.
Earlier, Siaya Governor Cornell Rasanga, a close ally of Raila, led a delegation to Kabarak, where it is understood they discussed BBI and 2022 politics.
The meeting, coupled with the coziness between Raila and Gideon brought about by the BBI, has triggered speculation the two leaders could be plotting a political deal.
Kamket told the Star that the party has lined up a series of meetings of its delegates as a part of a wider plan to revamp the outfit.
More delegations from across the country were scheduled to visit Kabarak to mourn with his family and engage the party leader before Covid-19 hit the country.
The meetings have thus been postponed.
“If it were not for coronavirus, we had prepared to host delegations from very many counties. Like last Sunday, there would have been people from Pokot. On Monday, we could have hosted people from Kericho and Bomet. It was a continuous programme,” Kamket said.
The legislator further said that after the meetings, which will resume once the country is declared free of the virus, the party will embark on a massive re-branding of all its offices across the country.
Analyst Andati, however, said Gideon will have to do a lot of work to entrench himself to the electorate and lock the DP out of his Rift Valley bastion.
“He doesn’t have that national charisma Mzee had. He is also known to be fairly stingy. People associate ‘Moism’ with money. Gideon only has the name, he has the money but he will not spend it,” he said.
He added that the Baringo senator does not have the charisma and energy to traverse the country as his late father did.
“He is more of aloof. He is struggling to learn Swahili yet he went to St Mary’s High School with Uhuru Kenyatta. He does not speak Kalenjin, he does not speak [good] Swahili. So it is very difficult for him to connect with the people,” he said.
Ogolla said Gideon is mobilising his support base for either the presidency or a key seat in the next government.