Jubilee plans retreat to rally members behind the ‘Big Four’ agenda

What you need to know:

  • Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju, who on Monday dismissed reports of a crisis in the party as a creation of the media.

  • Mr Tuju, who has supported free speech in the party with more than 220 elected members of Parliament, said that a planned retreat, to be announced soon, will help members bond.

  • Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, one of the vocal leaders in DP Ruto’s camp, said the retreat will help members focus on policy issues to back the “Big Four” agenda.

Threatened by divisions from within, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party has started mending relationships, with focus now shifting to a planned retreat to rally members behind the party’s “Big Four” agenda.

President Kenyatta has singled out universal healthcare, affordable housing, food security, and improvement of the manufacturing sector as the big four of his legacy-driven second term priority projects.

Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju, who on Monday dismissed reports of a crisis in the party as a creation of the media, was Wednesday bullish about the health of the year-old outfit.

UNDERMINING PRESIDENT

“It was a storm in a tea cup. If it were not so, the storm would have continued, but you see, all our members are in agreement that there was no crisis at all. We are operating normally, and we are running this government as one party under one president,” Mr Tuju told the Nation on phone.

Reports of divisions in the party had been publicised by an incensed Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen, who late last month told Citizen TV that there was a struggle in the party, with those seen to support Deputy President William Ruto being castigated for allegedly undermining the President.

Mr Murkomen alleged the existence of a clique of what he said were powerful civil servants in the Office of the President, whose sole purpose was to block the DP’s 2022 State House bid. He refused to name the officials.

POLICY ISSUES

“There is a small wing of individuals who occupy high offices, who are spending all their time trying to plant seeds of discord within the party. These people have deliberately stopped focusing on the delivery of the “Big Four” agenda and they are now being used by destructive elements with the desire of breaking the party,” Mr Murkomen said during the interview, sparking a chain of reactions.

The reactions included a reported meeting between President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto on Friday last week, and which reportedly settled on a Tuesday Parliamentary Group meeting, which Mr Tuju on Monday said had not been planned.

Mr Tuju, who has supported free speech in the party with more than 220 elected members of Parliament, said that a planned retreat, to be announced soon, will help members bond.

“The retreat will provide an opportunity for members to know each other in an informal environment. It will also give us an opportunity to discuss some policy issues,” Mr Tuju said.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, one of the vocal leaders in DP Ruto’s camp, said the retreat will help members focus on policy issues to back the “Big Four” agenda.