• Speaking on Monday during a campaign rally in Meru county, Kindiki said Uhuru had resorted to the drastic action to save the country from sanctions by the Western world.
• In the run-up to the March 4, 2013 general election, western countries warned Kenya against electing the Uhuruto duo and threatened unspecified actions should Kenyans ignore the advisory.
Image: WILLIAM RUTO/TWITTER
Tharaka Nithi senator Kithure Kindiki now claims President Uhuru Kenyatta had signed an agreement to give up his 2013 presidential bid.
Speaking on Monday during a campaign rally in Meru county, Kindiki said Uhuru had resorted to the drastic action to save the country from sanctions by the Western world.
"When it was said that the country would face sanctions against the international community, Uhuru Kenyatta went and signed illegally without consulting us an agreement to transfer power and to transfer his candidature to another candidate," Kindiki said.
While acting as their lawyer, Kindiki revealed that he personally went to Uhuru's house accompanied by Uhuru's running mate William Ruto and members of the TNA campaign team to convince Uhuru to reverse his decision.
"We told him you cannot overturn the voters' decision and give away the presidency. You must be on the ballot," Kindiki said.
"I'm the one who tore that agreement that Uhuru had written," he added.
In the run-up to the March 4, 2013 general election, western countries warned Kenya against electing the Uhuruto duo and threatened unspecified actions should Kenyans ignore the advisory.
This was because Uhuru and Ruto were at the time facing crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague in relation to the 2007 post poll violence in which over 1,000 people were killed and more than 300,000 people displaced.
The then US Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson said the elections represented a “wonderful opportunity” to “demonstrate to the world the vitality of Kenya's democracy.”
But in a telephone briefing with journalists on February 7, 2013, Carson was asked repeatedly about Washington's position on the candidacy of the Uhuruto duo.
"Choices have consequences," Carson said.
He expounded: "We live in an interconnected world and people should be thoughtful about the impact that their choices have on their nation, on the region, on the economy, on the society and on the world in which they live. Choices have consequences.”
Carson did not specify the nature of “consequences” the election of two ICC suspects might have on relations with the U.S, but politicians locally interpreted that to mean sanctions.
On December 2012, Uhuru came out and claimed 'dark forces' had arm-twisted him to sign a deal which would have seen him give up his presidential bid to Musalia Mudavadi.
Uhuru, who was by then Deputy Prime Minister in the grand coalition government, spoke of threats and intimidation from unnamed 'powerful persons' who got him to sign a deal to cede his presidential ambitions to Mudavadi for the sake of the country.
He told TNA delegates at the Multimedia University that some even warned him against going for the top seat as it would deny the country foreign aid.
“You saw us showcase our unity at the Afraha in Nakuru but thereafter a devil who does not know where we started, came saying that if we continued in our quest Kenya would not get foreign aid; we will not sell our tea abroad, that we will cause war in Kenya. So I decided that instead of involving Ruto in it ( I would make) the decision myself because I did not know what he would tell his people,” Uhuru told the TNA delegates.
Uhuru had decamped from Kanu and joined forces with Ruto of the United Republican Party (URP) and unveiled the TNA party on whose ticket they won the presidency in 2013.
Kindiki's claims that he forced Uhuru to rescind his deal with Mudavadi came hot on the heels of revelations by Ruto that he too forced the president to stay on the ballot after their 2017 win was cancelled by the Supreme Court.
The DP said there was no way he was going to let the efforts they had put into campaigning for Uhuru's election go to waste by ceding the presidency to their main challenger, Raila Odinga of the now defunct NASA coalition.
"Kwa hivyo sisi ndio tumeunda serikali ya Uhuru Kenyatta hata kama amefanya ile mambo amefanya," Kindiki said.
This translates to, "So we are the ones who have made Uhuru's government even if he has done what he has done."
"Tumemsamehe aende nyumbani, lakini aende nyumbani na mtu yake ya kintendawili. (We have forgiven him, let him go home with his riddle's man.)
Ruto and his allies refer to Raila as 'mtu ya kitendawili' owing to his penchant to charge crowds at rallies with Swahili sayings and riddles.
They have openly differed with Uhuru, first, for entering into a truce with the ODM leader and for "abandoning" Ruto and endorsing the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate as his preferred successor after the August 9 polls.