- Raila left for Mombasa on Wednesday evening.
- The meeting comes ahead of countrywide tours by the duo.
Image: JACK OWUOR
President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga are set to hold secret talks today as Uhuru’s point man reiterates Kenyans should prepare for Raila's presidency.
Speaking when he joined Raila for a meeting with some youths from Murang’a in a Nairobi hotel, Jubilee vice chairman David Murathe disclosed that the ODM boss will be joining Uhuru in Mombasa for a meeting.
The two handshake partners will be meeting in Mombasa where the President has been since returning from the United Kingdom on Sunday.
The Star has established that Raila left Nairobi on Wednesday and flew to Mombasa from Wilson Airport at around 5pm.
"He (Raila) is on his way to Mombasa. They have some plans with his brother (President Uhuru) down there," Murathe said without divulging further details.
Contacted, Raila’s spokesperson Dennis Onyango admitted that the African Union High Representative for Infrastructure flew to Mombasa but did not confirm or deny the meeting.
According to Onyango, Raila was taking a break from Nairobi’s cold weather.
“As far as I am concerned, Raila is taking a break from the cold in Nairobi,” Onyango told the Star.
The meeting comes on the backdrop of planned Uhuru-Raila countrywide tours meant to unite the country ahead of the next general election.
Speaking in Murang’a last week, Raila said the tours will be spearheaded by Uhuru and him and will see the handshake team crisscross the country starting this month.
The countrywide tours are viewed as the duo’s fightback strategy to scuttle Deputy President William Ruto's presidential bid.
The meeting also came at a time when the President's succession team is working on a broad-based alliance of key political players that will see ODM and the ruling Jubilee Party field a single presidential candidate next year.
It was not clear whether it was due to the meeting that Raila had to cancel his Nyanza regional meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
Yesterday, the party announced that the Nyanza conference has now been pushed to August 18. It was to take place on Friday.
Murathe, speaking during the meeting with Murang’a youths, reiterated that the ODM chief is better placed to succeed President Kenyatta whose term expires next August.
The Jubilee vice chairman, in another bold proclamation, declared Raila will be the country's fifth President after Uhuru.
"Prepare for Jakom as the fifth President. Those with eyes to see, dalili ya mvua mawingu," Murathe said.
He said they are working day and night for a Raila presidency either through the current law or under the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), which was halted by the courts.
Murathe also noted Jubilee will soon be inking a coalition deal with Raila's ODM to pave the way for a much bigger political formation that will face the Ruto team.
The country, he noted, has enjoyed tremendous peace when the Kikuyus and Luos unite with other communities.
He cited the events preceding the country’s Independence and 2002 when Raila declared ‘Kibaki Tosha’.
"They call me the face of impunity in Jubilee. Our job was to remove these people from Jubilee and now our task is to remove them from Mt Kenya," he said.
“Nasa is now no more, it is now time for us to come together. Every time our people work with people from Nyanza we always win."
-Edited by SKanyara