This week, the newspapers have been awash with stories on how President Uhuru made claims at State House that Deputy President William Ruto wanted to impeach him, and it’s the reason why he opted to work with Raila Odinga.
When asked, Raila denied any knowledge of such plans, yet his charlatan Junet Mohamed has made further allegations to that effect.
The DP has gone on record telling the President that he shouldn’t peddle lies against him even if he doesn’t want to support him. He further stated that he couldn’t topple a government that he himself helped create.
This scenario is quite interesting in that it appears the gloves are off, and we are now witnessing bare-knuckle politics. It’s quite telling why this information is coming out now and not during the run-up to the 2017 general election.
In 2016, I went to see Raila to thank him for his party ODM having nominated me to the National Assembly. Upon visiting his office, I told him that I had made up my mind to run for the Ruiru parliamentary seat on the Jubilee ticket.
I further informed him that according to my own assessment, Uhuru was going to beat him in the polls. He intimated that I was very bold in my assertion, and then engaged me in a conversation that was quite revealing.
He averred that Uhuru was too young to retire and that he should run as his (Raila’s) deputy in the forthcoming election, then he Uhuru would come back to rule for another two terms.
I told him that such a scenario would require a constitutional amendment and in any case, where was Ruto’s place in the equation? He concurred that it would be like asking for a pound of flesh.
Raila then suggested that Uhuru makes him prime minister, and I told him that this too required a constitutional amendment. He then suggested he be made Chief Minister and our conversation ended at that.
This was on August 25, and it should be remembered that only two days earlier, Raila had been invited to speak as the last guest during the memorial of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta at Holy Family Basilica.
Concurrently, research commissioned by ODM that was conducted by their strategist, a renowned professor who at one time served as a commissioner at the defunct Constitutional Implementation Commission. He indicated that if Uhuru won, then Ruto would definitely become president.
The plan was thus to disparage Ruto and brand him as corrupt, so as to increase the chances of Raila becoming president.
In that same year, David Murathe intimated that after Uhuru’s reelection, it wouldn’t be business as usual.
Just as I had predicted, President Kenyatta won, and Raila contested the results that were then nullified by the Supreme Court.
Ruto led a robust campaign to have President Uhuru reelected for a second time, leading nearly 80 per cent of this campaign. The repeat presidential election confirmed Uhuru as president, yet Raila swore himself in as the ‘people’s president'.
Just before the presidential election was nullified, we had a Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting at State House whereby a livid President Kenyatta asked us not to prepare for 2022 till the fourth year, when he would lead the campaign for Ruto in person. He called us unpalatable words that cannot be printed here for ethical purposes.
Soon after the handshake, Murathe went on an offensive against the Deputy President, accusing him of all manner of things.
Due to the drift by Mt Kenya MPs towards Ruto, Uhuru wanted to regain his grip on them, and through the Mt Kenya Parliamentary Group, of which I was secretary, a series of meetings were organised in Nairobi, Naivasha and Nyeri.
A politburo of four people, including Moses Kuria, Cecily Mbariire (chairperson), Amos Kimunya and myself, was formed to steer the process.
In our meeting in Nyeri, which proved to be the last, I joked to the President that he was like a man with a gun but no bullets. It's then that he pronounced that his choice of president in 2022 would shock many.
Faced with an existential crisis of being young, yet his two terms were coming to an end, the President needed survival. On the other hand, Raila’s old age was catching up with him and both needed self-preservation, against their common threat, William Ruto.
The handshake was thus pre-conceived before the last election and is only being implemented now.
Any allegations of impeachment are a smokescreen to cover up the real intention of the dynasties that wanted to impeach the DP and replace him with possibly Gideon Moi, if not Raila himself.
If Ruto wanted to torpedo the government, he would have done so when the President left all instruments of power as he went to the ICC.
On the contrary, Raila is associated with the 1982 coup, the Okoa Kenya Uhuru Park blockade, swearing himself in as president, and getting into government through the backdoor via the handshake.
Ruto had indicated that he approached him four times to have them work together after the 2017 election to topple Uhuru, but Raila refused.
These allegations in my opinion are nothing more than desperate attempts to justify an already crumbling government-sponsored project under Azimio.
Kenyans are much wiser.
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