An elaborate plan to weaken the ODM Party Leader Raila Odinga has been put in motion by President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenyan News Day can exclusively confirm.
At the helm of this plot is Dr. Karanja Kibicho who the Principal Secretary, State Department for Interior and a few other trusted senior government officials who are running minor errands for him.
To begin with, state mandarins have ensured that Odinga’s NASA coalition which all but handed Jubilee a resounding defeat in the 2017 General Elections has been plagued by infighting resulting to.its collapse.
As the NASA collapse happened, Office of the President is secretly funding a new coalition that brings together Musalia Mudavadi’s ANC, Gideon Moi’s KANU and Kalonzo Musyoka’s WDP. The party receiving the bulk of funding is Mudavadi’s ANC whose leader is also being touted as the fulcrum of the new yet to be named coalition.
In the meantime, a much talked about reciprocal visit by Odinga and some Luo Elders to Central Kenya to be hosted their Kikuyu counterparts In Nyeri has been postponed four times in as many months. No reason has been given for the postponed visit but Kenyatta has shown little enthusiasm in hosting Odinga in his stronghold Mt Kenya region.
As if that is not enough, four major BBI promotional tours by Raila that had been scheduled to Kiambu, Nyeri, Embu and Kirinyaga Counties were called off at the last minute reportedly on orders of PS Kibicho, much to Odinga’s chagrin.
A source told Kenyan News Day that GEMA governors were under strict directions from Kibicho not to dare host Raila ostensibly because allowing Ruto free entry had led him to build a following in GEMA contrary to Kenyatta’s wishes. Not wanting the same to happen if Raila were to be allowed free access to Mt Kenya region, this last led to Governor Anne Waiguru shunning the BBI rallies altogether and even mending fences with her bitter rival Kibicho whom she hosted in Kirinyaga this week.
Kenyan News Day also learnt that Kibicho had grown to be so powerful that, with Kenyatta’s full blessings, he was not only overshadowing his boss Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and he was also usurping Joseph Kinyua’s roles as the Head of Public Service with most senior civil servants now reporting directly to Kibicho. In some quarters, the feared Kibicho is being viewed as the defacto Head of State.
It would appear that after turning his back on his erstwhile coalition partner Deputy President William Ruto, Kenyatta was now replaying the Kibaki script who betrayed his then Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka by also turning his back on his handshake partner Raila Odinga who had helped him stabilise the country following contentious elections in 2017.
While Raila Odinga continues to enjoy state trappings and facilitation since his March 2018 handshake with President Kenyatta, sources told Kenyan News Day Kenyatta was keeping Raila at arms length and not keen to do anything that would either upset or political uplift the the veteran opposition leader who also enjoys full diplomatic status when outside the country due to the position created for him as African Union Special Envoy for Infrastructure Development.
However, in his tour of Githurai last month, Raila’s convoy came under attack by hired youth. The visibly upset ODM leader did not go ballistic as has been his character but took the entire episode in his stride even after learning that civil servants answerable to Kibicho had organised his heckling and attack at Githurai. An ODM source said Raila’s priority was to get BBI reforms passed and implemented before hitting the road for 2022 campaigns.
To further test Raila’s patience, Kibicho has personally taken over the responsibilities of the Building Bridges Taskforce at a time the movement is supposed to be preparing for a referendum. The powerful PS has rendered the BBi Secretariat an empty shell by starving it of necessary funding and taking charge of sensitisation campaigns himself.
Apart from Joint Secretary Dennis Waweru, Kenyatta has no one else to trust in the BBI National Secretariat following the death of Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji. As the Chair of the BBI Taskforce, Haji died when his experience and skills were needed the most to steer the country into the final phase of the BBI reforms package.
To make matters worse for Raila, the President unilaterally invited Mudavadi, Kalonzo and Moi to State House for a ceremony to than fourty-two county assemblies for passing the BBI constitutional amendment bill. It will be recalled that like Ruto, Mudavadi strongly opposed the BBI initiative in.the early stages but State House still kept on inviting his to BBI ceremonies while keeping Ruto out.
The other tactic being employed by Kenyatta to weaken Raila is to incite ODM governors against their party leader. Rebellion stemming from unclear sources has seen in governors of the counties of Turkana, Kilifi, Mombasa, and Migori uncharacteristically going against their party leader. According to our source, the rebbeling ODM governors have reportedly been assured of state support with their numerous corruption files currently with Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
In the just concluded Kabuchai and Matungu by-elections, just as it happened in Msambweni, ODM candidates suffered humiliating defeats even as the hidden hand of the state could be seen having played a role in facilitating the ANC and FORD-KENYA wins – all falling within Kebyatta plans to weaken Raila Odinga in his traditional strongholds of Western and Coast regions.
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