Jubilee slams Ruto over Prime Cabinet Secretary position, chides him for opposing BBI

**Deputy President William Ruto addressing residents during UDA rally in Mwiki Kasarani Nairobi on May 13, 2022.** [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Jubilee Party has told off Deputy President William Ruto for planning to create Prime Cabinet Secretary's position in his power-sharing deal under the Kenya Kwanza coalition.

The coalition consists of Amani National Coalition (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi, Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetang'ula and himself under United Democratic Alliance (UDA) among other parties.

According to the agreement, Mudavadi and Wetang'ula will have positions of Prime Cabinet Secretary and National Assembly speaker respectively should Ruto win the August 9 elections.

Speaking at the party headquarters in Nairobi yesterday, Jubilee Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni said it is unbelievable how DP Ruto opposed the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), which was to establish such a position.

‘‘It is amazing to see that the Deputy President used his entire time during the second term to oppose anything that was in BBI. The truth is he was seeing the content there and now he wants to sue it to benefit himself and those looking for leadership positions in his coalition, yet he doesn’t want to look at what was beneficial to Kenyan citizens,’’ said Kioni.

Kioni added: "Leaders must condemn this because there is no other definition of a conman. How can you deny school fees to Wanjikus through bursaries and you come to look for big posts up here. You have now taken the same (BBI) document to say so and so will be this and that position,’’ he said.

The Ndaragwa MP said instead of Ruto using the whole document contents to benefit all Kenyans, he only used what benefits him, Mudavadi and a few individuals including Wetang'ula, Kilifi and Machakos governors Amason Kingi and Alfred Mutua.

Kioni told Kenyans they have been fooled by Ruto, hence they should not vote for him. He said 27 constituencies in 16 counties risk being scrapped by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) because we did not amend the Constitution in time, which BBI would have rescued.

The SG also said Jubilee has 1,385 candidates running for various positions across the country including governors (25), senators (27), Woman Reps (29) MPs (194) and 1,110 MCAs.

On zoning, he said where they needed to move people, requested to support one another, that phase is done with and they now have their candidates.

‘‘We now want everyone to concentrate on looking for votes and campaigning,’’ he said, adding that they are targeting to win over 100 MP seats.

At the event, musician Kevin Bahati was issued with a Jubilee party ticket to vie for Mathare constituency.

The ticket came as a relief after he recently shed tears during a press conference for being denied the ticket.

Initially, Jubilee had decided not to field a candidate in Mathare under Azimio la Umoja coalition zoning agreement and leave it to Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) candidate and incumbent Anthony Oluoch.

A happy Bahati thanked the party for considering him and expressed confidence in winning. ''I say thank you so much, I have my ticket, and I am in the ballot with Jubilee ticket and I can promise that I am the next MP for Mathare,’’ Bahati said.

He thanked President Uhuru Kenyatta for giving him and the youth a chance to lead and Raila Odinga for allowing him to run against Oluoch.

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