Deputy President William Ruto’s camp was forced to shelve its plan to operationalize his command center — Jubilee Asili — after the owner of the building reportedly asked them to leave.
A section of Tanga Tanga members has alleged that the government is frustrating a landlord who had leased his property to be used as the Jubilee Asili Centre headquarters.
The Deputy President had dramatically opened the centre in June this year, with political analysts claiming it was a step towards ditching the Jubilee Party, whose offices are located in Pangani.
The Jubilee Asili Centre offices were located along Makindi Road in the Kilimani area. However, a local newspaper has reported that the offices have been locked for the past two months as it is understood that the landlord has given the DP and his allies a vacation notice
An MP allied to the DP, who spoke on condition of anonymity alleged the landlord has been threatened by government operatives to terminate the lease.
“The landlord is in an embarrassing situation because he is being bullied by being told that a number of his things will go wrong and he has not processed the change of user. The government is using all means to frustrate our landlord and scuttle our plans for 2022,” the lawmaker said, adding that they had proposed to buy the building from the landlord but he was not ready to sell it.
This complicates things for Ruto, who has been locked out of the Jubilee headquarters.
In October, Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju announced that the DP has been barred from the party offices and also recommended that he be removed as the deputy party leader.
“The Deputy Party Leader as a self-declared Presidential Candidate for 2022 will not be allowed to use the Party headquarters as a center of operationalization of his 2022 campaign and to use the center for intimidation of any potential opponent or Party staff…. It is no longer tenable for the DP to use the Party platform including statements from the Party Headquarters to advance his divisive so-called hustler politics that are counter to the Party and Presidents platform of uniting the country, the fight against corruption and the agenda four items,” said Tuju.
This was a day after Ruto had stormed the offices with more than 30 MPs and went ahead to hold a meeting in the offices. Tuju described the move as an attempted coup.
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