How William Ruto lost his grip on Jubilee Party

At the height of his power, Deputy President William Ruto’s word was law in Jubilee party. During the chaotic 2017 nomination for instance, the party cancelled the exercise and the man who presided over the repeat nominations was Mr Ruto.

Three years later, the DP is a bystander in the party he helped start and on Monday, one of his last stalwarts, Jubilee Deputy Secretary General Caleb Kositany was kicked out.

 A combination of bravado, internal coups and the Handshake has finally edged out Mr Ruto and his allies from the party.

Nyeri Town MP Wambugu Ngunjiri said the decision to kick out Mr Ruto from Jubilee was first triggered by the Deputy President himself.

“The President expected Ruto to help him finish his term and secure his legacy before starting to campaign to succeed him. Ruto started to campaign for 2022 immediately Uhuru was sworn in and completely absconded his responsibilities as principal assistant to Uhuru. He was a marked man after that,” said Mr Ngunjiri. 

Then the Handshake between President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga happened in 2018. 

The first sign that all was not well started the same year when Jubilee vice chairman David Murathe starting attacking Mr Ruto.  After the DP’s allies complained, Mr Murathe purported to resign before it was later revealed that he never left the party. A Jubilee official was attacking the Deputy Party Leader and getting away with it.

And in 2019, despite an agreement not to field a candidate in Kibra,  Dr Ruto managed to ensure Jubilee party fielded a candidate in the Kibra by election, even though many members allied to the president including Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru and Jubilee nominated MP Maina Kamanda rallied behind ODM’s Mr Imran Okoth citing ‘Handshake’ deal between the Head of State and Mr  Odinga.

The line was drawn and it led to another coup in Jubilee. As the country was battling Covid in April 2020 , the Office of Registrar of Political Parties gazetted new members of the National Management Committee on a Friday evening.

Against the DP’s wishes and legal battle to oppose the names, Jubilee successfully had its way by appointing Lucy Nyawira Macharia, Prof Marete Marangu, former Kitutu Masaba MP Walter Nyambati, Jane Nampaso and James Waweru to the NMC.  The ruling political outfit had forwarded five new names to the National Management Committee following the exit of three others.

More than 145 Jubilee MPs wrote a letter to the registrar of political parties protesting the coup but it did not change much.

The NMC coup was a fatal blow to Mr Ruto because the team is in charge of the day-to-day management of the party and sits more frequently than the National Executive Committee or the National Delegates Conference to make urgent and pressing decisions. It is this powerful body that kicked out Soy MP Caleb Kositany as Jubilee Deputy Secretary General on Monday.

Though the party is supposed to meet and ratify some of those decisions, Section 33 of the Jubilee constitution gives the party leader and deputy party leader the powers to appoint interim officials during the transition period before internal elections are done. The Jubilee constitution assumed that  President as the party leader and the DP as his deputy would always work together.

The coup in Jubilee was followed by kicking out of Mr Ruto’s allies in both the National Assembly and the Senate, which also affected his clout in the party. The removal of Mr Aden Duale and Mr Kipchumba Murkomen from their National Assembly and Senate Majority Leader positions, respectively, as well as that of Senate Majority Whip Susan Kihika and her National Assembly counterpart Benjamin Washiali—who were all members of the NEC—led to waning of  numbers for the Ruto camp wane in the powerful organ. All were members of the NEC due to their positions in Parliament.

The appointment of Eldas MP Adan Keynan as the Secretary to the Parliamentary Group further shored up President Kenyatta’s clout in the NEC. 

In his effort to seize control of the party, in October last year, the DP stormed Jubilee headquarters in Pangani accompanied by 38 MPs in what allies of President Kenyatta termed as a 'coup' when the Head of State was out of the Country.

Seen as part of his scheme to recapture Jubilee, the DP has vowed to operate from the offices but would later be declared persona non grata by the party through a communication by Secretary General Raphael Tuju.

By this time, Mr Ruto’s influence in Jubilee was in name only. And this was evidenced when his faction tried to unsuccessfully field a candidate in Msambweni by-elections last year through the party but Jubilee threw its weight behind ODM’s Mr Omar Boga.

The DP’s brigade however, rallied behind Independent candidate Mr Feisal Bader who won the seat.

 His reign as Deputy Party Leader was over.

And Murathe insists they are not yet done with DP allies in Jubilee.

“It is illegal for the Tangatanga MPs to propagate the interest of another party – UDA and still claim to be in Jubilee. WE are not through with them,” Mr Murathe says, threatening that the party was not yet through with the “rebels.”

Political analyst Mr Dismas Mokua says that the DP would have sanitized Jubilee and used the party as his 2022 vehicle “but he dug a hole when he started treating the party leader with contempt and disparaging party organs and decisions.”

“His attempt to take over ended up a successful failure when President Kenyatta re-organized the party by securing his loyalists in key offices,” Mr Mokua argues.

The DP’s allies now believe that staying in Jubilee is no longer tenable, and most of them have vowed to seek re-election on the new UDA outfit.

“Even before removal of Kositany, we had known that the fight for the control of Jubilee Party is no longer tenable and we have decided to concentrate on UDA which is likely to be our new political outfit ahead of 2022,” said Keiyo South MP Daniel Rono.

Political analyst Prof Edward Kisiang'ani opines that Kenyans will vote DP Ruto because of his personality regardless of the political party he will use.

Prof XN Iraki of the University of Nairobi however, insists that discipline is paramount for the success of any political party.

"Kanu was in power for many years because of party discipline. You cannot get power without good party machinery," said Prof Iraki.

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