•The Kenya Kwanza Alliance asks President to keep off the succession politics.
•Leaders warn he's setting himself up for shameful outcomes.
Image: DPPS
Kenya Kwanza Alliance leaders have sensationally claimed that President Uhuru Kenyatta is seeking to remain in power by using ODM leader Raila Odinga as a proxy.
ANC boss Musalia Mudavadi and his Ford Kenya counterpart Moses Wetang'ula said in the presence of Deputy President William Ruto that the President was “plotting to succeed himself.”
During several stops in Mudavadi’s Vihiga backyard, the leaders further claimed that a Raila government would be an extension of Uhuru’s administration.
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro and Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki also made the sentiments asking the President to keep off the succession to avert a shameful retirement.
They restated the claims that Raila was a "state project" while positioning their side as a government that will not carry on with the baggage of the Jubilee administration.
Leaders accompanying the KKA principals told their supporters that the Azimio government would be run at the whims of those planning the succession.
They claimed the Raila administration would follow in the footsteps of Uhuru naming the huge public debt.
“Azimio is a project of the deep state and some people. Uhuru is the patron. He has installed a project Raila and is now looking for a Deputy President for Raila,” Mudavadi said.
“If you didn’t know, he wants to be the chairman of the Azimio la Umoja. Raila and others will be given roles to play—like is happening in DRC. That is what we have refused.”
“The question we are asking him (Uhuru) is; having known the problem of being a project, why are you bringing Kenyans one?” Mudavadi added.
KKA leaders further claimed a plot to blind the Luhya community with jobs that will fall vacant following the resignations in public service whose deadline is today.
“I am an example of how a project doesn’t work. I was made vice president for two months, what did we get out of it? Let us reject this project,” Mudavadi said.
Nyoro said the President has served two terms and should not purport to succeed himself.
“Please, do not succeed yourself, either directly as Uhuru Kenyatta or through another faceless character which is a project of the deep state,” Nyoro said.
The KKA team held that whoever Uhuru backs would perpetuate policies that have staged joblessness, public debt, low cash flow, farmer woes among many shortcomings of Jubilee.
“Finish your term. We will take care of you as a retired president. Stop shaming yourself. Abandon projects that are falling. This project Tinga has neither wheels nor fuel,” Nyoro said.
Kindiki said, "Don't allow yourself to be involved in things that will earn you shame. Be like Mwai Kibaki (third president). Leave issues of political parties alone."
Wetang'ula said, “We won’t allow you (President Kenyatta) to succeed yourself. Kenyans have the power to define the succession and they will resoundingly do so in August.”
Ruto, for his part, criticised the move urging Kenyans to reject “successions planned in hotels in Nairobi.”
“The people of Kenya cannot elect a puppet, a project, a man of deceit who cannot keep his word, a man who has no track record…are clever and they will know which leaders to elect.”
“Even those pushing Kitendawili know very well that he has no capacity to run this country. There is no way Kenyans can accept shadowy characters to run this country.”
“Our priority is not about leadership positions. It is not about what Ruto, Mudavadi, Wetang'ula, and Omboko will get but to cater to wananchi’s needs,” Ruto said.
Mudavadi exuded confidence that their KKA team would win the August election in the first round.
He dismissed the Azimio team saying it would fail like the Moi project in 2002 when the president (Daniel Moi) backed Uhuru.
President Kenyatta has over time stated that he would serve his term and leave, but has of late indicated strongly that he would have a say in his succession.
The President, in a recent meeting with Jubilee MPs, said it was time to hit the campaign trail. He is expected to join Raila in the campaigns, more so in Central.
But KKA leaders, who have expressed their reservations with the Uhuru support for Raila, said it was time Kenyans were left to elect their leaders.
“We want Kenyans to elect their leaders. Time is over for kitendawili (Raila),” Mudavadi said at the start of their four-day forays in Western.
KKA is set to hold meetings in Busia today and head to Kakamega on Tuesday before heading to Trans-Nzoia on Wednesday.
The team would head to Kisii on Thursday, combined with Nyamira, and head to Narok on Friday before returning to Kakamega on Saturday.
Western is heavily gravitating towards the newly-launched Democratic Alliance Party of Kenya (DAP-K) associated with Defence CS Eugene Wamalwa.
KKA, while dismissing the team, held that their priority would be to grow the economy as a priority “to make Kenya where all are proud to be part of.
“We don’t just want to be in government. We want to form the government. We don’t want a government where we are always on our knees,” Mudavadi said.
“Our agenda is to give jobs to our children. We have over four million who have graduated and we must plan how they will be employed to help build the economy,” Ruto said.
The DP asked residents to vote for KKA MCAs, governors, MPs, Senators, and Woman Representatives. The leaders said it was time to end tribal politics.