Kenya’s ruling Jubilee party endorses Odinga for President

On February 26, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta led a Jubilee party National Delegates Conference (NDC) at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi. The NDC endorsed the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader, Raila Odinga as the party’s preferred presidential candidate for the August general elections.

Odinga is also the leader of Azimio la Umoja, a coalition of ODM and Jubilee parties. The Jubilee delegates also officially removed William Ruto from the Jubilee’s deputy party leadership since he is already campaigning on the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket.

Kenyatta, who will not be on the ballot due to a constitutional limit of two five-year terms, opted to back Odinga against his deputy, Ruto, whom Kenyatta says is unfit to be president of Kenya.

 "Very early in my second term I did make it clear to the Kenyan people that mine was a choice of leadership over politics," Kenyatta said at a meeting of the party's national delegates council.

While addressing over 5,000 Mount Kenya delegates at State Lodge in Sagana, Nyeri County on February 23, Uhuru spoke publicly for the first time, about why he fell out with Ruto. Speaking mainly in Kikuyu language, the President accused Ruto of undermining his administration, saying he was hardly in the office.

The president also accused his deputy of starting campaigns early and failure to serve the public. Although he did not name him by name, Uhuru asked religious leaders to reject accepting stolen money, in reference to Ruto’s cash donations to church organizations. The president insinuated that Ruto got his riches through corruption. Uhuru asked the Mount Kenya community (Kikuyu Community) to listen to him, walk with him to support his choice of successor (Raila Odinga) come August.

After the 2017 controversial presidential elections which Odinga rejected even after a re-run, he agreed to make peace with Kenyatta in early 2018.

Ever since Uhuru and Odinga made peace, Ruto became a worried man and began to mistrust his boss, Uhuru, claiming that his boss kept him in the dark regarding “the hand shake” with Odinga.

But Uhuru maintained that he was open to Ruto and informed him about the hand shake before time.

“When I was discussing with Raila, I kept my deputy well informed. Even on the morning of the handshake, he was the last person I talked to before I went to Harambee House, and then he comes here to tell you that I kept him in the dark.” Uhuru said at the Sagana State lodge meeting.

Uhuru defended his intentions for the handshake saying it was for the sake of peace, as the period prior to the talks was marred with violence and demonstrations, and not meant to secure himself another term in office.

“He (Ruto) was of course opposed to the handshake because he knows he has government security but what about the common man down there, that is the person I was mindful about because the country was literally stalled, we all wanted peace,” Uhuru stated.

 Veteran politician and former Subukia Member of Parliament Koigi Wamwere,  said of Ruto after the handshake: “The deputy president must be feeling like a wife whose husband has brought another woman into her house.”

For Ruto, he knew that his 2022 presidential ambition had been jeopardized, as the handshake was suspected of hatching a secret plan for Uhuru succession.

Meanwhile Ruto left, over the past weekend, for a 10-day visit to the United Stated and United Kingdom to solicit support for his presidential bid from the Kenyan in diaspora as well as engagements with officials in US and UK. 

In the U.S, Ruto was expected to speak at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and at the University of Arizona's Washington Entrepreneurship Hub.

“In London, Dr. Ruto will meet senior UK Government officials, visit the National Counter-Terrorism Center and speak at both the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House),” read a statement by Ababu Namwamba, Head of International Relations, and Ruto’s presidential campaign secretariat.

The endorsement of Odinga by the Jubilee party gives him a strong boost especially in the central Kenya region that commands majority voters.

 However, it is still too early, to predict whether Odinga commands majority support to win the August presidential elections.