Sabina Chege: Why I 'overthrew' Uhuru from Jubilee
Nominated MP Sabina Chege (right) and former President Uhuru Kenyatta in combined photos.
Jubilee Party caretaker leader Sabina Chege on Thursday said her ouster of former President Uhuru Kenyatta from the party's leadership was to save it from further ruin.
She said her switch of allegiance was a culmination of events that smacked of betrayal and no effort by Mr Kenyatta to provide progressive leadership.
Commenting on her dalliance with the Kenya Kwanza government despite being a member of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party, she said "there is currently no law that binds us in this pre-election pact".
Ms Chege said no meeting of coalition leaders had been called to pave the way forward, leaving room for all to consider future options.
"As for the Jubilee Party, if we stayed in Azimio, we would have died. If we hunted alone, we would have died. We thought it prudent to create an independent tact, supported by our friends, so that we could go out to hunt in good health, with full stomachs," she said.
She also said that Mr Kenyatta was no longer the centre of power in the Mt Kenya region as Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua had since overtaken him.
"No ceremony is needed to know that Mr Gachagua is the kingpin of Mt Kenya by virtue of the political position he occupies," she said.
Ms Chege said that as party leader, Mr Kenyatta had overseen a downward trajectory of the former ruling party to the point where the 28 elected leaders in the National Assembly were losing focus.
In any case, she added, Mr Kenyatta has even been abandoned by the law, which requires him to leave active party politics.
"The law is not on his side. Six months outside State House disqualifies him from being our party leader. He is yet to write a letter to explain that he is still an active politician," she said.
She accused Mr Kenyatta of being an absentee leader who has been suffering from indecisiveness for some time, and of behaving as if he was pawning off the Jubilee Party to Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Party, rather than fighting for its rightful share of political power in Parliament.
Speaking on Inooro TV, Ms Chege said Mr Kenyatta was ignoring the fact that the Political Parties Act identifies UDA, ODM, Jubilee and Wiper as the main vehicles because each has more than 18 elected leaders.
"He abandoned us at the negotiating table on parliamentary power-sharing. Jubilee was not consulted in parliamentary committees, parliamentary commissions... we tried to reach him through phone calls and text messages. He never responded," she alleged.
She added that Mr Kenyatta had given the Jubilee Party to ODM leaders.
Ms Chege further accused Mr Kenyatta of being indecisive and leaving the party without a clear position. "When we recently went to take over our party on the advice of due process, we found ODM politicians manning the gates. Mr Kenyatta stormed our offices accompanied by well-known street thugs. Jeremiah Kioni (the embattled secretary general) was there as a church elder and lawyer .... armed with a huge metal rod ready for war," she said.
She advised the former president to stop turning the country and Jubilee loyalists into a circus.
"We have seen him on board campaign vans in Nyanza region declaring Mr Odinga as his party leader. He is silent and comes out with thugs telling us to leave Jubilee. We are not going anywhere. Jubilee is us, not him," she said.
She added that his continued stay as leader was killing the party.
"He has brought us down from 170 elected members in the National Assembly in the 2017 general elections to just 28 now," she said.
She lamented that good people in Mt Kenya region lost elections not because they were bad, but because they stood with him.
Ms Chege said they had warned Mr Kenyatta that there was opposition to his preferred political choice of sidelining his then deputy William Ruto, but he ignored them.
"We had told him that the 2018 handshake between him and Mr Odinga was not a party agenda, it was personal. It was between him and Odinga. But he persuaded us to stay and help him achieve a legacy of departure," she said.
She added that the elections that took place in Mount Kenya made it very clear that there was a building contempt against him, the Jubilee Party and his loyalists, but he ignored it.
Instead, she said, Mr Kenyatta "chose to continue to trust an inner circle that undermined the people, that belittled Ruto... that refused to listen and ultimately made us pay the ultimate political price of loss".
She added that as of now, Mr Kenyatta is not Jubilee.
"The Jubilee Party is owned by its members and its power is exercised by elected leaders. He has no position in the party. We gave him his two terms as president. He should be grateful. He should concentrate on being a statesman. His time in politics is over," she said.
The nominated MP warned the former president against "engaging in hostile illegalities, desperate activities that are not backed by any law... The Jubilee National Executive Council (NEC) is not with him. The NEC will soon convene the National Delegates Conference (NDC) and Jubilee will reinvent itself by electing its preferred office-bearers".
She said the pattern that was emerging around Mr Kenyatta was that of a man of low birth.
"At this rate, you might see him on the streets participating in protests. He is eroding the dignity and respect that comes with his name, history and status," she said.
She said she was not afraid of losing Mr Kenyatta's favour, which saw him nominate her to parliament.
"Cowardice is a cause of poverty. They can take away her nomination if they can. They can take away her minority whip if they can. He should communicate directly with me instead of sending his foot soldiers," she said.
She added that the Jubilee Party's position in the bipartisan talks is that "it has to be about Kenya and Kenyans. Not about Azimio and Kenya Kwanza. Not about individuals.
