Jubilee’s plans as NASA prepares to ‘swear’ in Raila

Jubilee Party intends to downplay NASA leader Raila Odinga’s plan to swear himself in on Tuesday and instead make a mockery of it hoping this would cool down the political temperatures.

In a secret strategy paper leaked to the Sunday Standard, Jubilee’s plan is not to interfere with the swearing-in ceremony. The party thinks that interfering with the ceremony will give Raila the impression that he is President Uhuru Kenyatta’s equal.

“There are many presidents of many associations in Kenya – including the children’s parliament, Team Mafisi, boy child, etc. There is nothing wrong with Raila swearing himself as President of an association,” says the plan which was crafted on Wednesday at the Jubilee Party headquarters.

At least 30 Members of Parliament a dozen governors and Jubilee political strategists attended the closed-door meeting whose recommendations have been forwarded to President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.

As part of the plan, Jubilee will from tomorrow deploy its social media machinery, Internet bots and bloggers to poke fun at the swearing-in ceremony by making it look like a foolish idea. Yesterday, NASA laid out their programme for Tuesday’s event but kept the venue a secret.

“Social media should design a graphic to poke fun at Raila swearing-in,” says the Jubilee plan. It is still unclear if Raila’s running mate in the August poll Kalonzo Musyoka will fly in to attend the ceremony as he is away in Germany.

Jubilee Party also intends to capitalise on his absence even though he is abroad taking care of his ailing wife Pauline.

“We need to note that there are many signs that Kenyans are now moving forward and it is only a few people who are reluctant,” says the strategy.

Seven-point plan

A seven-point communication narrative has been crafted and is soon going to be rolled out. This includes saying that people are now going back to banks for financing, parents are preparing their children for Form One and government programmes are ongoing.

Jubilee also intends to push the narrative that devolution and NASA governors are also working to portray that Raila is an isolated man. To do this, the ruling party has tasked political strategist Washington Makodingo to write an opinion piece for the newspapers highlighting the benefits of devolution five years down the line.

Gabriel Muthuma, who appears on several TV shows in a day, has also been roped in to write an article on the historical perspective of devolution.

It will be interesting to watch whether there will be chaos on Tuesday since the Government has shown intolerance towards NASA’s demonstrations by reacting with brutal force. The National Police Service has also said it is ready to arrest and charge Raila with treason if he attempts to swear himself in as the president.

On the recent police killings and in case more people die on Tuesday, the Jubilee party plans to push the narrative that the officers are ‘simply doing their job’ and that they ‘operate independently.’

NASA has maintained that at least 17 people have been killed by the police since Raila returned from the US on November 17.

The party is also pushing President Kenyatta to name his Cabinet in order to close down any avenues for the inclusion of the Opposition in a coalition government.

President Kenyatta has been keeping his cards close to the chest as concerns naming the Cabinet. Sources say discussions are being held behind closed doors between the Government and the Opposition that may lead to an inclusion of Opposition members in the Cabinet. This is causing jitters among Jubilee Party hardliners who want nothing to do with the Opposition.