TNA strategists and key players in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Kitchen Cabinet are sharply divided over the strategy to adopt for the forthcoming Mathare by-elections with one side pushing for George Wanjohi’s re-election and another side vouching for discreet support for ODM’s Stephen Kariuki.
In a strange turn of events, highly influential courtiers in the President’s Kitchen Cabinet from Gatundu are almost overrunning the group of mainly Nairobi TNA power brokers led by Starehe MP Maina Kamanda and Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko who are strongly supporting the re-election of George Wanjohi, the Jubilee Candidate.
The Gatundu group see in Cord’s (ODM) Stehpen Kariuki, their own son since his late father James Kamangu hailed originally from Gatundu South where the President also comes from and served for two terms as Member of Parliament while his mother Bishop Margaret Wanjiru was born and brought up at Kiganjo in neighboring Gatundu North.
It is instructive that the two Gatundu’s were once one Constituency whose first member of Parliament was Uhuru’s father and first President of independent Kenya the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
The Gatundu group is led by among others: Kiambu Women representative Anne Nyokabi, Governor William Kabongo, Uhuru’s uncles: Gatheca and George Muhoho and Moses Kuria (Gatundu South MP-elect). The other conspicuous supporters of this strategy are TNA legislators Rachel Shebesh and Kimani Ngunjiri plus former Raila ally turned foe: Ngunjiri Wambugu.
The group believes that Stephen Kariuki is a more manageable acquisition and will readily bring on board some youthful energy for the defence of the Jubilee Government which is lacking in the current crop of TNA legislators.
They draw parallels with other Cord legislators who have readily ditched Raila and their other CORD Co-principals and are now supporting the Uhuruto Government. They include: Abdul Swammad Nassir (Mvita), Richard Onyonka (Kitutu Chache), Khatib Mwashetani (Kwale), Manson Nyamweya (South Mugirango), John Arama (Nakuru East) plus governors John Nyagarama (Nyamira) and Evans Kidero (Nairobi).
They are also happy with Kariuki’s mother Bishop Margaret Wanjiru for her refusal to Co-operate with CORD leaders in their anti-government agitation that kicked off one month ago with calls for dialogue before recently deciding to force a national referendum. The Jesus is Alive Ministries (JIAM) Bishop has been conspicuously missing from all CORD rallies including the two major ones at Uhuru Park when Raila Odinga returned from the United States and the historic Saba Saba rally.
The group has been holding secret meetings with Mr. Kariuki in Karen and Runda with occasional sessions attended by ODM rebel elected leaders among them: Shebesh, Onyonka, Dr. Alfred Mutua (Machakos) and James Arama; to drill the young man on how to play clever tricks to win the Mathare Seat (for CORD) on August 7 and how to hide behind: “Working with the Government for development” to ditch the CORD agenda once safely in Parliament.
This Gatundu strategists whose co-ordinator is Moses Kuria believe TNA’s George Wanjohi is uneducated and politically timid thus cannot add value to the TNA agenda of rebuffing CORD debates in Parliament and in public gatherings effectively.
They have thus collected over Shs. 30 Million to secretly bankroll the Kariuki Campaign in Mathare to ensure he gets a convincing victory. The money will be channeled through one of the governors and the Jubilee moles within ODM and CORD.
Story by Denise Okoko.
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