President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto will meet at the national prayer breakfast hosted by Parliament on Thursday.
A programme seen by the Star shows that the DP will attend and is in fact scheduled to invite the President to speak.
Uhuru and Ruto do not see eye-to-eye and have in the last three public meetings avoided shaking hands.
Present too will be Speakers Justin Muturi and Kenneth Lusaka, who have broken ranks with the President and are supporting Ruto's presidential bid.
"The President has accepted to attend the national prayer breakfast. The theme will be 'Transitions', borrowing from the book of second Timothy chapter one verse seven," Muturi said.
According to the programme, Chief Justice Martha Koome will also attend as well as a number of clerics.
The keynote messages will be delivered by Bishop David Oginde of the Evangelical Association of Kenya, Jeremy Marambi of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Sujata Kotamraju of the Hindu Council of Kenya.
Others will be Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit, Association of Muslim Chaplains Sheikh Abdullahi and Archbishop Anthony Muheria of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nyeri.
International guests are also expected at the meeting, which will be steered by West Pokot Senator Samuel Phogisio and Makueni MP Daniel Maanzo.
Lusaka will deliver the welcome message as the patron of the national prayer breakfast, while Muturi will deliver the vote of thanks.
It is not clear if former Prime Minister Raila Odinga will take a break from his campaign engagements in Western to attend the meeting.
Dennis Onsarigo, the Raila campaign secretariat communications boss, said the ODM leader was yet to discuss such plans.
“He is in Western. We have planned activities in Busia county on Thursday,” he told the Star on the phone.
Uhuru and Ruto have been embroiled in a public spat that revealed the deep discord in the Jubilee administration.
Presiding over the Labour Day celebrations on May 1, Uhuru lashed out at his deputy, accusing him of absconding duty yet conveniently blaming the government.
He said some leaders were complaining about the high cost of living and yet not offering solutions. He didn’t mention the DP by name.
“Instead of coming to help me and offer your advice, you are busy in the market abusing people and you are calling yourself a leader of a higher rank,” the President said.
Uhuru asked Ruto to step aside instead of criticising the government from within.
In a quick rejoinder, the DP said the President is to blame for assigning someone else his job, hence his criticism of the government of the day.
“I feel your pain. Those you assigned my responsibilities and 'project' mzee [in reference to Raila], have let you down miserably,” Ruto tweeted.
He said he was only a phone call away and accused the newcomers of bungling Jubilee’s plans for their second term.
Ruto said newcomers killed the ruling party, Big Four agenda and frustrated government’s progress in the second term.
The exchanges, which revealed the irreversible fissures in Jubilee, came hot on the heels of verbal attacks on the presidency pitting the Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza side and those in support of the status quo.
The sentiments targeting the Jubilee administration were heightened after the President publicly endorsed Raila.
The national prayer meeting is also coming amid a strong belief that the Deputy President has taken over Parliament, triggering fireworks that have threatened to paralyse the House from time to time.
This is owing to his dalliance with National Assembly Speaker Muturi and his Senate counterpart Lusaka.
The last prayer breakfast was held at the height of the ravaging effects of Covid-19 and was centred on economic recovery.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
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