Msambweni By-election: How Jubilee Cornered Ruto

The rift among Jubilee Party officials has surfaced yet again, leaving Kenyans guessing whether the Deputy President will be given his ten-year term offer that he was promised by his party leader during their 2017 presidential campaigns. This insight marred after the Jubilee Party made a decision not to field a candidate in the much anticipated Msambweni by-elections without informing the Deputy President.

The Deputy President claimed that he had a different opinion while addressing the press at Jubilee Headquarters in Pangani yesterday. However, he assured the public and supporters of Jubilee that he had been convinced and agreed to bide with the party’s decisions. Ruto’s thirst to engage the key rival ODM in the coming Msambweni by-election was evident despite being humbled in the two-hour meeting that he held with his party’s secretary-general Hon. Raphael Tuju.

Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju informed the press that their decision of not issuing a Jubilee Party ticket for the scheduled by-election after the demise of the former MP Suleiman Dori was of good interest to the common Mwananchi. He cited the joyful relationship between Jubilee and ODM and the ongoing debate about the two-third gender rule as some of the considerations in the bold party decision.

Tuju said, “With the unprecedented cooperation between Jubilee and ODM in Parliament in the recent past on matters of national importance and given that it was an ODM seat, the decision has been made that Jubilee will not field a candidate in the interest of the bigger picture.”

All said and done, the decision by Jubilee is seemingly unfair for the deputy president, who almost got an opportunity to show his muscles of being a worthy opponent for ODM not only in this year’s but also other election that is yet to come.