Wiper has told off Jubilee vice chairman David Murathe for saying Kalonzo Musyoka stands no chance of succeeding President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2022.
Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua and the party’s executive director Jared Siso said Uhuru’s support for Kalonzo should not be pegged on sharing of national resources that disadvantages other areas.
“I wouldn’t want to address Murathe through the media but his remarks were unfortunate. He is the man seen to be closer to the President and he should be the one pushing the President to leave a nationalist legacy and as a statesman and not the tribal route they are suggesting,” Wambua told the Star on the phone.
“To tie the future leadership of this country on how the senators are going to vote on the revenue formula is so unfortunate.”
On Tuesday Murathe, a close confidant of the President, said Kalonzo has no chances of succeeding Uhuru and instead he should for the third time support ODM leader Raila Odinga.
"We signed a cooperation agreement with his party. But some of the senators giving us a headache on this revenue sharing formula are Wiper senators. So if Kalonzo cannot get his legislators to back the President why should we support him in future?" the former Gatanga MP said.
Kalonzo, the former vice president, was Raila’s running mate in the 2013 and 2017 presidential race, the two elections in which Uhuru defeated them.
Already Wiper has signed a cooperation agreement with the ruling party and two weeks ago, it also announced that it was quitting the moribund quasi-opposition outfit Nasa so as to sign a post-election coalition agreement with Jubilee.
Siso said Wiper will proceed with the plans to sign the deal with Jubilee despite the remarks by Murathe.
“We are still on course towards signing the agreement. We have a lot of issues that we want the delegates to ratify so it was not just the proposed coalition agreement with Jubilee. It will take a bit of time,” he said.
Edited by Henry Makori
