, NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 23 – Two rival formations comprising women lawmakers are lurching towards a showdown over the ongoing campaign for national unity that saw women leaders form a cross-party alliance in January dubbed Embrace, ostensibly to popularize last year’s unity deal between President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The Embrace group led by Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs Chief Administrative Secretary Rachel Shebesh has come under fierce criticism from a rival formation tagged Inua Mama Jenga Taifa under Kandara MP Alice Wahome, a staunch supporter of Deputy President William Ruto.
Laikipia Woman Representative Catherine Waruguru and her Kirinyaga counterpart Purity Ngirici singled out Shebesh for perpetuating what they described as ‘divisive politics’ using State resources during a rally in West Pokot on Saturday.
“They are using money allocated to the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs to run their campaign. They’re even using money from the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) for their countrywide campaigns,” Waruguru claimed.
“These are people who lost in elections and they are just lucky to have been appointed to positions in the national government. We’re the real politicians and so you better wait until 2022 if you want to engage in politics,” Ngirici declared in referring to Shebesh and NGEC Commissioner Priscilla Nyokabi who served as Nyeri Woman Representative in the 11th Parliament.
Similar remarks were made by Malindi lawmaker Aisha Jumwa and Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika who faulted the Embrace alliance for leading anti-Ruto campaigns in the name of peace-building.
“These confused fellows traversing all over the country telling us they are embracing one another, who are you embracing?” Jumwa charged.
Kihika dismissed the Embrace group for creating “unnecessary tension” saying they made it look like the country was facing a crisis.
“They’re saying they are traversing the country to bring about peace yet I have not seen any war in this country. Is there war in Kenya?” she asked.
The Wahome-led team, mainly comprised of Ruto’s supporters from the governing Jubilee Party held a similar rally in Malindi.
The emerging confrontation between the two women lobby groups mirrors a similar clash between pro-handshake Kieleweke group led by nominated lawmaker Maina Kamanda and Ruto-allied Tangatanga group whose notable lieutenants include Kikuyu lawmaker Kimani Ichungwa and his Kiharu counterpart Ndindi Nyoro.
Factionalism is rife within the ruling party despite repeated assurance that they majority parliamentary party is intact.
Raphael Tuju, the party’s Secretary General, came under fire on Saturday after DP Ruto fired a warning shot directed to “rogue party officials.”
“Party officials in Jubilee must know they are managing the party that is responsible for the development of our country. We undertook that we’re going to be the party that is going to unite this country and eliminate ethnicity, hate and division,” he said.
“I want to advice our party officials not to be used to breed hate and ethnicity because that is against our vision with President Kenyatta which is to bring unity in this country,” he added.
Leaders who accompanied Ruto in his Mt Elgot tour sounded a warning to Tuju after a leaked phone call emerged where the SG is heard voicing anti-Ruto sentiments with a Kiambu politician.
“We want to sound it off to our own Secretary General. Stop telling us the leaked recording is a forgery. If there’s anything that is a forgery, it is you! You cannot be seen to undermine and sabotaging the road and President Kenyatta has set out,” Ichungwah warned.
Ruto’s Kimilili right-hand man Didmus Barasa told off Tuju for engaging in divisive politics telling him to join Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
“ODM is the party known for divisive politics, confusion and problems, not Jubilee,” the Kimilili MP said.
The recent showdown between pro-Ruto and anti-Ruto campaigns came just days after Kenyatta and Ruto appeared to be reading from the same hymn book, the two urging their party members to support development initiative during a tour of Uasin Gishu on Friday.
During the visit which saw Kenyatta launch a revamped textile manufacturing company in the region, Ruto-allied lawmakers vowing to support the Head of State deliver on his pledges to the country.
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