President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday told off those thinking he is a lame duck President and gave the clearest signal yet on his 2022 thinking.
In a rare, no-holds-barred public take on the country’s politics, the President also hit out at lawmakers from his Mt Kenya stronghold for focusing on his succession and “loitering” instead of working with the government to revive the coffee sector.
Speaking to Nyeri town residents in Kikuyu after a meeting with the lawmakers, the President said he will speak his mind about politics when the right time comes, and that his views will shock some people.
(Some people think that, just because I am retiring, I have nothing to say (sic). I will say something at the right time. And some people will get shocked,” said the President, who also heads the Jubilee party.
The much publicised Jubilee pact stipulates that when President Kenyatta retires in 2022, the party will support his deputy, Mr William Ruto, for the top seat. Some Mt Kenya leaders have been drumming up support for Mr Ruto.
A week ago, the President told Jubilee followers in the Rift Valley, from which Mr Ruto hails, that the pact was intact, and blamed the media for causing splits in the party. But yesterday, he said it was too early to focus on the 2022 campaigns.
After commissioning the expansion of the Nyaribo airstrip, the President met Mt Kenya MPs in a tightly controlled meeting where he read the riot act to them for making demands through the media.
According to several sources at the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, the President was furious with the MPs for addressing him through the press.
After the dressing-down, none of the lawmakers who attended the forum at the Central regional commissioner’s official residence would speak to journalists on record.
“The President was particularly angry with an outspoken Kiambu MP for engaging the media. We have sworn not to speak to the press. The reports on our Naivasha meeting misquoted the proceedings,” one MP claimed.
On succession politics, Governor Mutahi Kahiga warned the Kikuyu against being misled by politicians seeking to succeed the President as the region’s kingpin.“ We have only one leader whom we will follow and we will not consider anyone else. We will take the direction the President gives us,” he said.
