If political survival demands that one maintains a stoic face and keeps an even pulse while seated in a burning grass-thatched hut, then office bearers would do it without batting an eyelid.
The ever-widening fault lines within President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee administration are proof to this.
Events this week have once again brought to the fore the deep fractures that have come to characterise the unmatched bromance the country was treated to when Jubilee came to power six years ago, with flamboyance that enthralled their supporters and silenced their political enemies.
Strained relationship
With bubbly promises of transformation and the exuberance that resembled that of a well fed calf in the open fields, they jumped into pledges and promises with gusto.
Six years down the line, it is no longer at ease for President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto and their strained relationship, mutual suspicion within the ruling party and the ever-present serving of sour grapes at Cabinet meetings.
It looks to be all doom for the Jubilee administration.
From a slow performing economy replete with a crippling debt crisis surrounded by talk of a cash crunch, the elusive implementation of the Big Four Agenda and whirlwind of troubles swirl around Uhuru’s second and final term.
The UhuRuto administration has also been beset by challenges in the rollout of the controversial Competence Based Curriculum, with ensuing tussle pitting the Ministry of Education and teachers’ unions.
According to former Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow, it was just a matter of time before the Jubilee train derailed.
“The much talked about Big Four has refused to move, there is a food shortage, manufacturing is in headwinds and housing yet to pick. This is despite the huge promise that Jubilee made to Kenyans,” said Kerrow.
Unless President Kenyatta puts his act together, Kerrow says, it will no longer be tenable to have his government moving in the same direction and the Cabinet leading the path to Jubilee’s promised land.
The latest apocalypse warning is the controversy that has embroiled Ruto with three Cabinet Secretaries over allegations that the ministers met to plot his assassination. The damning allegations - that three of Uhuru’s CSs Peter Munya (Trade), Sicily Kariuki (Health) and ICT’s Joe Mucheru - met at a Nairobi hotel to, among other things, “plan the assassination” could be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back in Uhuru’s government.
The Cabinet Secretaries have dismissed the allegations, saying the meetings complained of were normal development foras to address emerging concerns.
The Ruto assassination allegation has only heightened bad blood in a deeply fractured Cabinet. But before the strain among the CSs started, the political war in the party had begun and its apparent crumbling could be the monumental Achilles heel that may haunt Uhuru’s last years as he tries to cement his legacy.
Already, some leaders within Jubilee - including Nandi Governor Stephen Sang - have called for the removal of the three CSs for credible investigations to be conducted.
“How will the CSs sit in Cabinet with these kind of allegations? President Kenyatta should honourably suspend them to give room for the matter to be dispensed with,” said Sang.
Today, Uhuru is caught in a catch 22 situation. Where does he go from here? John F Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, while addressing the State of the Union Address, once said: “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” Could Uhuru and Ruto have delayed mending the roof until it started leaking?
For three consecutive weeks, the President has not held a Cabinet meeting that is ordinarily done every Thursday.
Worse still, two years after it won re-election, the Jubilee Party has convened only one parliamentary group meeting amid hue and cry.
And now, Kerrow says unless Uhuru takes charge, things can only get worse.
Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu says the troubles in the Jubilee government stem from some leaders engrossed in succession politics. “Our troubles as a party are internal. Our leaders have decided to disregard the pledges we made to Kenyans and instead politic as if we will have elections in a few months,” he said.
Wambugu, of Kieleweke - an outfit opposed to Ruto’s 2022 bid - says the Tanga Tanga group allied to the DP had shelved the aspirations of Jubilee.
Thrust to power with a super majority that saw it control both the Senate and the National Assembly, political pundits say the biggest dilemma for the President is how to bring together his party so that they can pull in the same direction and help him deliver on his Big Four Agenda.
His newly found friendship with his arch-rival, Raila Odinga, which has driven a wedge between him and MPs allied to Ruto, has further complicated the scenario and removed the sails from the Jubilee ship.
“With the handshake, some people known for their divisive nature have come to divide us,” Kipkelion East MP Hillary Kosgei says.
