Ruto is said to have made frantic calls in efforts to save one of his fiercest defenders from being ousted as majority leader. Cracks in President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee Party continue to deepen with a planned ouster of Senate Leader of Majority Kipchumba Murkomen stopped at the last minute yesterday.

A Jubilee Party National Management Committee emergency meeting is said to have initially endorsed the Elgeyo Marakwet senator's removal from the powerful position. It reportedly took a last-minute intervention by Deputy President William Ruto to forestall his removal.

The meeting, at the party headquarters, began at 10am and ran until 3pm. A source said those in attendance pushed for Mr Murkomen's ouster and proposed his replacement a Bomet Senator Christopher Lang’at or his Uasin Gishu counterpart Margaret Kamar.

The meeting was preceded by another one on Saturday night by State House operatives who had mooted the ouster bid. It is not clear if Murkomen's removal had the endorsement of President Uhuru Kenyatta, but a party meeting similar to yesterday's sitting requires a nod from top party officials.

A legislator who attended the night meeting said State House had been taken aback by Murkomen's statements that seemed to contradict official Government position. "The feeling in circles of power is that from the Senate majority leader's statements, his spirit was no longer with the Government… from the opposition of the lifestyle audit ordered by the President to his outbursts over Mau evictions, he seems to have become an outsider," said the MP.