Democratic Party officials from the Coast on Wednesday accused the Jubilee Party of scheming to block National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi’s match to State House.
Muturi has declared interest in the presidency through the DP ticket, something said to have made some Jubilee members unhappy.
The officials, led by organising secretary from Kilifi county Isaac Njuguna, said Jubilee operatives are trying to intimidate Muturi into abandoning his quest.
“We condemn the sinister plot hatched by some Jubilee Party operatives purporting to have enough reasons to call for the removal of National Assembly Speaker Muturi,” Njuguna said.
They spoke after a meeting at the Jambo Paradise Hotel in Tononoka, Mombasa.
This comes as Jubilee Party officials, led by secretary general Raphael Tuju, denied knowledge of any plans to remove Muturi from his position, which he has held since 2013.
National Assembly Majority leader Amos Kimunya said he has not received any instructions from the party leadership to have Muturi pushed out.
The speaker rubbed the ruling party the wrong way when he criticised Jubilee for going after rogue members in Parliament by removing them from committees.
On September 17, Muturi said the party had not been following protocol in the removal of members from panels.
“You don’t just wake up and say we are throwing you out. That is dictatorial,” said Muturi, adding that members should be given a chance to defend themselves.
Kimunya, the Kipipiri MP, said the ‘rumours’ about Muturi’s impeachment is a ploy to distract Kenyan’s attention from Jubilee’s National Delegates’ Conference set for November 30.
“I have not been approached by anyone on this and neither will I take part in it,” Kimunya said.
In Mombasa, the DP leaders said claims by the alleged plotters against Muturi that he violated the Political Parties Act by announcing his presidential bid "are nonsense".
“There is no law that Muturi has contravened. It is the height of hypocrisy for any Jubilee member to accuse another of contravening the Act,” Njuguna said.
This is because Jubilee itself has entered into a pact with ODM, which was not authorised by the NDC, Njuguna said.
On November 30, Jubilee NDC plans to kick Deputy President William Ruto out of the party, with Kieni MP Kanini Kega saying he will move the motion.
The Coast DP officials believe the NDC will also ratify an MoU between ODM and Jubilee “without approval by party branches”.
“They cannot turn and accuse Muturi of joining DP, which is the same thing they are doing. No one in Jubilee can purport to be following the Political Parties Act. This is a case of seeing the speck in your neighbour’s eye while ignoring the log in your own eye,” they said.
The officials endorsed Muturi’s bid, saying he would continue the legacy of their founding member and former President Mwai Kibaki.
They said like Kibaki, Muturi, whose campaign mantra is ‘Integrity, Responsibility and Order’, has proven leadership qualities.
Muturi will revive the economic policies that saw Kenya’s economy thrive under Kibaki, they said.
Hubert Kutsongwa, the Kwale DP chairman, likened Uhuru’s leadership to a driver who abandoned a bus in the middle of the road.
“He alighted and left the bus with passengers inside to join an old tractor that he saw at the roadside.
“Meanwhile, his conductor collected money from the passengers and alighted with it, having placed them in sacks and loaded them into a wheelbarrow,” said Kutongwa.
It is this abandoned bus, whose engine was still running, that Muturi will steer to the destination where the passengers want to go.
The party's NEC member Fatma Abeid said Muturi is the saviour that Kenya needs.
