Murathe Q&A: I don’t speak for Uhuru

The following are excerpts of an interview with David Murathe (pictured) aired by KTN on Sunday night, hours after his resignation as Jubilee Party interim vice chair.

Host: You released a statement saying your position is no longer tenable. You gave out your reasons, but there are people, political observers out there who say you did not resign but were forced out of the party.

Murathe: Nothing could be further from the truth. I am an interim vice chairperson just like any other party official right now. There is a transition clause in our party that says that interim officials should have to be in office for a term not exceeding three years. You cannot go beyond three years, but you can also leave before the three years. We have come to a point where people have seen opportunity to start clamouring for the positions. It is not like somebody is dying to hold onto those positions, after all I have no ambition to get back to politics or to aspire to hold any office.

Q: When you are making these statements, saying there is no MoU that exists between Jubilee and the Deputy President; that you will personally go to the Supreme Court to block (William) Ruto’s presidential ambition... are you making these statement as Murathe a private citizen, Murathe the Jubilee Vice Chairperson or because you are a friend to the President?

A: That is precisely the reason why I opted to get out, because of the perception that whenever I say something I say it at the behest of the President or other forces. It is like I have no mind of my own. I thought in this country people had freedom of expression and right to express their opinion. I feel unshackled now because they can no longer attribute what I say either to my party position or to my perceived closeness with the President.

Q: Were you making any consultations before making these damning statements... because the Deputy President has supporters out there? And when you say there is no MoU between Jubilee and Ruto, have you ever sat back and thought how it is going to affect the unity of the party?

A: MoUs are written instruments, which are also deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties. The MoU between (retired President Mwai) Kibaki and Raila (Odinga), for example, in 2002, was a public document. I want to dare them to produce an MoU. As an insider, I can assure you there is none. The arrangement was clear about how they would share government. In some instances, they took more lucrative ministries. They have been part and parcel of this government. They actually took Treasury, Agriculture, Energy (and) Land, which provided them with certain opportunities to plunder.

Q: Why did you bring this issue right now? Why didn’t you bring it up in 2013 or in the run up to 2017? Does it have to do with the 2022 succession?

A: No! There was an arrangement in 2013 about how, if we win government, positions would be shared. This presidency is a pair, so it was in the best interest of the President to win in the reelection just as it was in the best interest of the DP to win. The reason I am bringing it out now is because this narrative (of MoU) is getting ingrained in people’s minds that you have to support us and in the event you don’t, XYZ will happen, and it is dangerous. It is a timed bomb and must be checked now?

Q: Why didn’t you raise it during the run up to 2017 elections? The President was vocal then, saying he was going to rule for 10 years then the DP another 10 years? There are people who now feel the DP was used to win the election.

A: There was nothing to raise. I have just told you that these people were a pair defending their 2013 victory. I have said it that if they had some side arrangement between the President and the DP, that is their business. But there is no formal instrument. This thing is like a pressure cooker, the more you tell people that there is this arrangement and in the unlikely or likely event that the DP does not win, there is a huge potential of explosion. Because they will go out and say we supported you in 2013 and 2017, now we have lost because you have reneged on your promise. That is why we are raising it now so that people start to internalise and accept that Mt Kenya should be free on which way to vote after Uhuru.

Q: You talked about individuals who have been looting and have taken up lucrative positions in Cabinet. Does it mean that the looting has been happening in one side?

A: Unfortunately that is the narrative they are giving. If you look at the number of people in court, in Kenya Power for example, the majority are Kikuyus. It is only that the top is Kalenjin. They want to hap about Kenya Pipeline, Kenya Power and Kenya Cereals and Produce Board. When you hear the kind of language they are talking, they know the determination of the President to deal with corruption. They know most of them are actually candidates for prison. They have been doing it with impunity, because they would pick up a phone and order procurement officers, “I want you to inflate it like this, give it to so and so...”. The chickens are coming home to roost.

Q: You said it was no longer tenable to sit with the DP in the party NEC as reason. Observers out there believe that you have been fired.

A: There is no hiring or firing in Jubilee. These are all interim arrangements. The President himself is an interim official, even the DP. Having said that, imagine we are sitting in the same NEC, and I have gone to the Supreme Court seeking to challenge the suitability of our deputy party leader to be on the ballot.

It is not tenable. Nobody is saying the Deputy President should not be contesting. In fact, a lot of people are relishing that contest against him because they have loads and loads of stuff on him, which they are willing and ready to unleash. I have my own reservations, but coming from where we came from, we had certain expectations about how the leadership should behave. We have seen how it has behaved. Some of us are generally scared, if they can behave like this when they are number two, what are they likely to do if they ever became number one?

Q: What is the political message when making these sweeping political statements that there is no MoU and that you will go to court to block the DP?

A: The political message is that we don’t have a problem with our marriage with the Kalenjin, but we have a problem with an individual, with a character because we are dealing with a personality who some of us feel is not suitable.

Q: When did you find out the Deputy President is not suitable?

A: Experience. We have watched how he runs things. It is known. It is out there. Ask anybody, even from his own corner of Rift Valley. The people whose toes he has stepped on, the people he has given orders to do unorthodox stuff which end up landing them in trouble, and yet people keep wondering who can rein on this guy. Even that Kalenjin nation; we are saying why can’t you give us someone else... but not this one?

Q: When exactly did you find out he is not suitable? This year, last year, when exactly?

A: These things have been coming out after the war against corruption became intensified. He is actually in court, defending with his lawyer Ahmednasir (Abdullahi), the issue of Weston (Hotel) for example. There are allegations of his involvement in the maize scandal where farmers were shortchanged.

Q: Do other people within Jubilee hold the same view... because we have seen a couple of Jubilee MPs celebrating your resignation.

A: Some of those people are candidates for jail. Then there are those people who have said that I have spoken for the vast majority who don’t have the guts. If you have a candidate who is likely to be the next President, you have to be careful.

Some of us don’t care because we don’t have ambition for office. But these are people who are trying to be careful just in case he becomes the President.

Q: How is your relationship with the Deputy President? Before you resigned did you call the President and the deputy to tell them about your decision?

A: I did not. I don’t want people to think that I take my cue or brief from the President.

You don’t want to drag the President into this issue, you don’t want to drag the President in the mud.

We are quite happy to go to the mud with this group.

Going forward, the Stop Ruto Movement that we are going to start, there is no stopping it.

So let them assemble their troops, we are going to assemble ours. There is going to be formations and let the best side win.