Things are no longer rosy inside the ruling Jubilee Party following Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen’s Sunday’s revelation that some internal forces are out to break the party.
Murkomen revealed that the unnamed forces which are surrounding President Uhuru Kenyatta, are almost succeeding in separating him from his deputy William Ruto, who is a 2022 presidential hopeful.
The biggest beneficiary of this confusion and blame game is opposition leader Raila Odinga, who despite remaining silent on the issue, is having the last laugh and can now laugh on Ruto’s face.
Ruto’s was in the lead mocking the leader when his National Super Alliance (NASA) was on the rocks and he too can now mock back, and even harder should the party go ahead to collapse as they are now even.
The confusion also means that Raila, despite his age and several political failures, is still a force to reckon with as it is only after his entry into the equation courtesy of his March 9 truce with Kenyatta that the 6-year-old marriage took the wrong turn.
He has confirmed earlier worries by a section of Jubilee leaders that he is a powerful individual whose entry can be hazardous and though yet to be implicated in any crime resulting to the situation, it seems the troubles are emanating from his presence.
Should the situation culminate into a collapse, Raila will have a bigger chance of winning should he vie for the presidency in 2022 as Ruto is unlikely to retain the Central Kenya vote after parting ways with the President.
Ruto will now only have the full backing of his Rift Valley backyard which is also divided since the Maasai and Turkana regions are largely on Odinga’s side hence leaving him weak.
Using his Luo Nyanza backing alone, Raila will have equaled Ruto’s Kalenjin support base and by adding his remaining strongholds and the swing zones, he could win in a ‘clean race’.