NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 4 – Four Governors drawn from the ruling Jubilee Party have endorsed talks co-led by the Party of National Unity (PNU) and the Ubuntu Peoples Forum (UPF) to form an alliance for 2022 polls.
Governors Lee Kinyanjui (Nakuru), Francis Kimemia (Nyandarua), James Nyoro (Kiambu) and Nderitu Mureithi (Laikipia) said the two outfits had commenced “early conversations” on the matter further revealing that they (Lee, Kimemia, Nyoro and Mureithi) will engage like-minded actors to broaden the alliance.
In a joint statement Saturday, read by Nyoro, the governors said that the next few months will be critical in deciding the future of the country owing the the socio-economic opportunities and challenges currently facing the country.
The county chiefs said they are proactively engaged in building broader consensus that will result in a formidable political vehicle for the August 9, 2022 elections.
“As leaders with keen interest on the future of our nation, we are hosting varied conversation with other leaders and political parties for the good of all of us in particular PNU and Ubuntu People’s Forum are in early conversation to build on their respective political advantage for the purpose of making positive change in our country,” Nyoro said.
“We will also engage like-minded political actors within and beyond for the purpose of formidable force. The future is greater when we are together,” he added.
Nyoro said that they will be bringing in people with similar interest from across the country to oversee an effective transformation of the country.
“We are opening it up and we would want to form a formidable force,” he added.
Governor Mureithi said that the aim of the alliance is to secure the country’s future transformation looking into the 2022 elections and beyond.
He called on political leaders to campaign based on ideas and urged them to shun violence as they hunt for votes across the country.
Mureithi added that they have been on record advocating for civil campaigns amongst the country’s political class.
“We stand by that and call on all other political actors to emulate the same, because the tone at the top matters a lot in the way campaigns go about. For the case of Laikipia and other parts we are working day and night to ensure communities are talking with one another so that we eliminate that specter of violence,” he said.
Governor Kinyanjui condemned what he termed as the ethnicization of the country’s campaigns a practice he saod had often resulted in isolation and profiling of certain communities.
“Everybody who looks at the character of this year’s campaigns, I think its possible to see that there is a departure, from that which you see even if you think about the Mount Kenya. There are people from both sides which I think is a very good safeguard to ensure nobody is profiled,” he said.
He added that they will do whatever it takes to prevent the recurrence of violence usually witnessed during the elections.
The new alliance signals more trouble for the governing Jubilee Party which has witnessed a series of defections by key leaders making it lose its earlier political spark.
The party has been on downward spiral since President Uhuru Kenyatta joined hands with ODM’s leader Raila Odinga in a handshake deal that irked some of his then allies including Deputy President William Ruto who doubles up as the Deputy Party Leader, a role he has since abdicated.
In several statements on his campaign trail, Ruto termed the March 2018 truce between President Kenyatta and then opposition leader Raila Odinga, what came to be knowns as the handshake, as the main reason for internal wrangles in the governing party.
Some of the key leaders who have recently decamped from the Jubilee Party, include Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru and Laikipia Women representative Cate Waruguru who have proceeded to join the United Democratic alliance (UDA), a Jubilee coalition member which rebranded before Ruto took control over its affairs as the de-facto Party Leade.
Waiguru joined the William Ruto-led party on October citing pressure from supporters and popularity of Bottom-Up Economic Model championed by Ruto’s Hustler Nation campaign team.
“It is only a fool who can continue being in the same political path with the kind of pressure that I have been facing,” she said.
“You cannot dictate to them. I have shifted to support the Bottom-Up Economic Development Model,” she added
Laikipia’s Waruguru, once a key critic of DP Ruto, officially joined UDA on November 23, after months of speculation.
“From where I sit, my conversation with my generation, the generation of my fellow mothers and fathers, the generation of my grandfathers, tunalenga mbele na future kwa chama cha (we aim forward under this party) UDA,” Waruguru said.
Waruguru said that she made the move after consulting her supporters.
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