Daggers drawn in Jubilee over Devolution CS Anne Waiguru ouster

The ruling coalition’s parliamentary leaders have denounced a planned motion to impeach Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru, claiming the United Republican Party (URP) MP lobbying for it was doing the bidding of the Opposition.

Cabinet Secretary for Devolution Ann Waiguru during a press conference at Harambee house on 11/9/2015. (PHOTO: FIDELIS KABUNYI/STANDARD)

High-ranking members of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s The National Alliance (TNA) and his deputy William Ruto’s URP closed ranks to also declare the Opposition's bid to impeach the Head of State would flounder because the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) had hoped to benefit from divisions within Jubilee.

It emerged that the motion to impeach Ms Waiguru, which is being fronted by Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, and which had attracted backing from some Rift Valley URP MPs, was infuriating their TNA colleagues at a time the coalition needed unity to fight the International Criminal Court case against the deputy president.

TNA and URP leaders are working on a trade-off that involves what some MPs said amounted to "blackmail and intimidation" to make sure that they were united ahead of the CORD-led impeachment bid against the Head of state.

Yesterday, the National Assembly's Majority Leader Aden Duale (Garissa Township) led senior figures in the Jubilee coalition, including his deputy Naomi Shaban and Deputy Senate Majority Leader Charles Keter to a news conference where they disowned a motion by one of their party members to censure the embattled Devolution Cabinet secretary.

The deal is to make sure the motion to censure Waiguru, sponsored by a URP MP, is dropped for the TNA MPs to back the on-going campaign to free the DP from the International Criminal Court.

Jubilee bosses in the House, who had met briefly prior to the noon news conference, abandoned Alfred Keter (Nandi Hills) who wants Waiguru censured, and declared that none of their 216 lawmakers would sign the motion to kick out the Cabinet secretary over the corruption allegations in her ministry.

Mr Duale and his brigade blamed CORD for being behind Mr Keter's motion on Waiguru.

"Alfred Keter does not represent the views of the rank and file of the Jubilee coalition. He does not speak for us, and neither does he represent us. His history is known to all and sundry and we know that he is speaking for the moles of CORD," said Duale at a news conference attended by 40 MPs.

They said Waiguru's ouster was a "diversion" from their bid to save Ruto from the pending cases at the ICC, more so after the allegations of witness-coaching and evidence-fixing.

The leaders said while Keter was a member of the coalition with a democratic right to file his motion, none of the MPs in the Jubilee coalition were going to sign the motion.

The apparent rift between TNA (President Kenyatta's party) and URP (DP Ruto's party) was top on their minds, with the school of thought being that the Opposition was banking on URP's displeasure over the continued stay of Waiguru in Government to get the numbers to initiate the impeachment of the President.

"Those who think a section of our coalition will be used for hire are dreaming...the Devolution CS is a whistleblower as far as the Jubilee coalition is concerned," said Duale.

Senator Charles Keter, who is also a close Ruto ally, said the unity within Jubilee will not be shaken.

"Our decision to be in Jubilee is final. We are going to support the President in 2012 and the deputy president in 2022 and we are not changing that," said the senator.

But as Duale and his brigade dismissed Waiguru's censure motion, MP Keter came out guns blazing and with the support of Johanna Ng'eno, said their bosses in Jubilee were intimidating them and all the MPs "who want to kick out all the corrupt people from Government".

He said his list had 45 MPs in support of the motion, while a second list compiled by his colleague Daniel Maanzo (Makueni) had 49 MPs.

"I have 94 MPs, I only needed 87. I have the numbers. Nobody should lie to you the way they are lying to members that I will withdraw the motion at the last minute," said Keter, but he did not release his list to the public.

Keter and Ng'eno said their colleagues in TNA are blackmailing the URP brigade.

The impeachment bid has made Jubilee worried. It doesn't want the motion to get to the House because it says it will be an opportunity for the Opposition to throw mud at the President.

Duale insisted that his coalition will work extra hard to make sure some CORD MPs do not sign on for the impeachment motion.

"CORD should know that the numbers it came in with in 2013 are not the same numbers it commands today. Impeachment of a President is not a joke!" said Duale.

CORD has 135 MPs in the House while Jubilee commands 216 in the 349-member House. To initiate the impeachment process, CORD needs 117 MPs.