Salat: Kanu to hold strategy meeting

From left, Kanu women congress Damaris Too, Kanu General Secretary Nick Salat (center) and Eric Bett a resident of Baringo during a press conference at Kanu headquarters office in Nairobi. Edward Kiplimo/Standard]

The Kenya African National Union (Kanu) is scheduled to meet its leaders to deliberate on party matters this weekend.

According to secretary general Nick Salat, the party has invited the leaders, including MPs, ward representatives and those nominated for consultations at a location he is yet to confirm, but which could be somewhere in the Rift Valley.

“We want to get feedback on various political and social issues, including the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, among others,” Mr Salat told The Standard on the telephone.

The party, he said, was supportive of the Building Bridges Initiative and fully behind the President’s Big Four agenda, which its national chairman and Baringo Senator Gideon Moi has become a champion of.

Consultative meetings

Salat said the party had also been reaching out to like-minded leaders and that Gideon held consultative meetings with key politicians, including Raila, former vice presidents Kalonzo Musyoka, ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.

The meeting comes at a time speculation is rife that Gideon, who is also the son of former President Daniel Moi, may be in the 2022 presidential race.

But Salat said the meetings had nothing to do with the 2022 succession politics.

He said it was too early for political campaigns for the next General Election and that the independence party was “just putting its house in order.”

The party has been able to roll out a series of political activities in the Rift Valley, Mt Kenya, Western, Eastern and Mombasa in reaching out to “like minded leaders.”

Gideon has also been able to woo a number of Rift Valley politicians elected on the Jubilee Party ticket to work with him in what Salat described as being “in the spirit of the handshake.”

In Rift Valley region, Moi is working closely with Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Alex Tolgos, Moiben MP Sila Tiren, Joshua Kutunyi (Cherangany) and Alfred Keter of Nandi Hills.

Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Shollei is another elected leader from the South Rift region said to have a soft spot for the Kanu leader.

Influential Uasin Gishu politician Zedekiah Bundotich Kiprop aka Buzeki is another influential leader from the region who has fallen out with Deputy President William Ruto.

Although he joined Isaac Ruto’s Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM), Buzeki has shown willingness to cooperate with Moi.