Kindiki accuses Kimunya, Poghisio of being bystanders in running Jubilee Party affairs

Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki has accused National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya and his Senate counterpart Samuel Poghisio of being bystanders in the running of the Jubilee Party.

Citing yesterday press conference that the party Secretary General Raphael Tuju was in control, Kindiki said that never happened during his time as Majority Leader in the Senate between 2013 and 2017.

“During my time as the Senate Majority Leader (2013-2017), I, together with my National Assembly counterpart, were the joint spokespersons of the Government Party in an outside Parliament on all political matters.

“Today’s equivalents sheepishly and cluelessly hurdle behind some nondescript, non-elected party officials to provide quorum for low-energy press conferences. How sad!” He said.

In what is morphing into a full-blown ugly confrontation, Tuju yesterday accused Deputy President William Ruto of blackmailing President Uhuru Kenyatta to appoint members of his community into Cabinet.

Tuju, who painted the DP as a selfish and wealthy politician exploiting the poor through his Hustler movement, accused Ruto of taking the President hostage after supporting him in the past two elections.

Tuju claimed that Uhuru was forced to appoint Ruto’s allies to the Cabinet in or- der to accommodate his interests at the expense of other communities.

Ruto’s handlers were keen to project the first term of the Jubilee administration as a co-presidency with the DP’s key supporters landing plum jobs in government.

“It is an open political secret that in the first term of this Presidency, Deputy Presi- dent Ruto possessed some ‘political black- mail stock options’ that he used to his great personal advantage,” said Tuju, a Cabinet minister without portfolio.

“From when the Deputy President took office in 2013, and he demanded half the Cabinet, the rain started beating us. His proposals were too biased ethnically and it left the President with no options but to work with the remaining half to accommo- date the rest of Kenya,” claimed Tuju.

Tuju spoke amidst an exchange between Ruto and Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, who last week gave a list of the huge number of police officers deployed to protect him and his vast wealth.

The revelation followed an outcry over changes in the Ruto’s security detail.

Yesterday, Tuju claimed that Ruto’s demands extended to other senior political appointments in government during Jubi- lee’s first term.