Uhuru ally David Murathe resigns as Jubilee Vice Chair

**Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju, Vice Chairman David Murathe, former Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth and Bondo MP Gideon Ochanda during the burial of** **Kepher** **Oduor, Tuju’s brother, in Rarieda, Siaya County, yesterday.** [Collins Oduor, Standard]

Barely a day after Jubilee Party Vice-Chair David Murathe went on an all-out assault on Deputy President William Ruto’s presidential ambitions, he has resigned from his position in the ruling party.

Murathe made the announcement on Sunday at his home in Garden Estate, Nairobi saying his position at Jubilee was no longer tenable. Murathe said he had to sit in the same National Executive Council with a man (Ruto) he was taking to court to block his 2022 presidential bid.

"I now find that it is no longer tenable to stay on as the party vice-chairman. There is no way I am going to sit in the same NEC with someone who feel I am out to block him from ascending to the presidency. I have quit my position,” he said.

Murathe, a close friend of President Uhuru Kenyatta and ex-Gatanga MP, yesterday said Ruto is not eligible to run for president in 2022 because his fate is constitutionally intertwined with the President’s.

He said his side will be seeking the Supreme Court’s advisory opinion on the matter ahead of the election.

“Section 148 of the Constitution says nobody can run for Deputy President for more than two terms. And why does it say that? Because Section 142 also says nobody can run for President for more than two terms, and this presidency is a pair... If for whatever reason the president is not able to carry out his functions, who becomes the president?

Can the President sack the DP? Can he? So in essence, if he automatically becomes President without going for the mandate of the voter, it means he is still riding on the very first mandate they were given as a pair. Then that is why he can’t run again...” said Murathe.

He was speaking at Rarieda during the burial of Kefa Oduor, Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju’s brother.

It was not the first time David Murathe was stroking political fires in the Uhuru succession debate.

At a Maragoli Cultural Festival in Vihiga he said Central Kenya voters would not automatically pick Deputy President William Ruto, the presumed heir-apparent to Uhuru’s position.