TANGATANGA MEN REVEAL NEW PLAN AGAINST PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA

Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua has sensationally claimed Tangatanga will expose land owned by the Kenaytta family in response to increased attacks on Deputy President William Ruto.

The prominent Ruto ally said they will no longer respond to allegations made by individuals  who appear to have been sent by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

“Henceforth, we will be responding directly to President Kenyatta on issues raised by his political surrogates. We will no longer be intimidated,” Rigathi said .

“Last week, they started talking about land issues. They are now threatening us that we will be arrested. We won’t be cowed by that. We want to know there the land that belonged to Mau Mau fighters went to,” he added.

The MP questioned why the piece land in question was being given round the clock security. “We are compiling the acreage of all pieces of land they own in Mombasa, Nakuru, Kahawa. They should be ready for that debate”.

Anxiety is deepening in the Cabinet with CSs linked to DP William Ruto quietly protesting against sustained attacks on him by Uhuru’s confidants.

The Star has established that the Cabinet is split as Cabinet Secretaries  allied to Kenyatta aim missiles at the DP from all directions.

CCs pledge loyalty to the President, the appointing authority, but the fallout in Jubilee has exposed the widening cracks at the hear of government.

While on one hand some ministers feel that the DP is being mistreated and unfairly attacked to undermine him, there are those from the President’s camp who have gleefully joined the political fight.

Following the unfolding nasty falling in government, some of the CSs have come out to take on the DP in a boldness that suggests they have the backing of a powerful hand.

On Monday, Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju came out accusing the DP of arm-twisting Uhuru to appoint his tribesmen into Cabinet and other senior government positions.

The statement read by Tuju at the Jubilee Party headquarters , the Star has learnt, has sparked tension among the Cabinet Secretaries.

“From when the Deputy President took office in 2013 and demanded proposing half the Cabinet, the rain started beating us. His proposals were too biased ethnically and it left the President with no options but to work with the remaining half to accommodate the rest of Kenya,” Tuju said in the statement.

He added, “These unfortunate demands of the Deputy President would extend to other senior political appointments in government for the whole of 2013 to 2017 circle.”

A CS who said he was expressing the general feeling in Cabinet after a series of public spats targeted at Ruto noted that the trend was portraying the government in bad light and building tensions.

“It doesn’t augur well for us in Cabinet and government at large when a colleague disparages the rest. We all have collective responsibility when it comes to government affairs. We only have one appointing authority and that is the President,” a CS who sough anonymity for fear of facing reappraisal told the Star on Tuesday.

He went on, “We have kept off politics as is required of us . This trend of double standards should end. We should respect both the President and the Deputy President because it is them that formed this government.

After the Uhuru and ODM leader Raila Odinga handshake in March 2018 that gave birth to the Building Bridges Initiative, some Css including Fred Matiang’i (Interior), Keriako Tobiko (Environment), Peter Munya (Agriculture), Mutahi Kagwe (Health), Joe Mucheru (ICT) and Tuju (CS without portfolio) have publicly attacked the DP repeatedly calling him to “respect the President”.

In September last year, for instance, Tobiko kicked off a political storm when he blasted Ruto, calling him a mere clerk.

Governance expert Peter Mugwe warned that the infighting in government is exposing Uhuru’s leadership and could portray him as a weakling 319 days to the August 9, 2022 General eElection.

“Is the President in control? This is the question preoccupying many Kenyans when his CSs are behaving the way they are. The President needs to step in and stabilise his government. It is not Ruto who will have a bad name but his regime will forever be remembered for the nasty fights,” he told the Star on phone.

Mugwe said Cabinet Secretaries under the Constitution are civil servants who should keep off politics.

When asked if the President was concerned with the infighting in his government which is threatening to paralyze service delivery, State House spokesman Kanze Dena declined to comment.

“No comment,” she told the Star.

Civil society activist Suba Churchill said the events should concern taxpayers “because it means we are witnessing a deepening of the division of the ruling party that makes Kenya not different from South Sudan where we have the SPLM and SPLM-IO.”

Churchill warned that the factionalism playing out at the highest level, where a faction of the ruling party is playing the role of opposition, is dangerous for the country.

“It is unfortunate because it means government policy is affected at all policy levels – Parliament and Cabinet.

“We know for a fact that some of the Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Chief Administrative Secretaries were proposed by the other half that is now Jubilee in opposition,” the activist said.

He added that the events should concern Kenyans because “the current administration was elected after the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010.

“Chapter of the Constitution speaks to leadership and integrity, hence this washing of dirty linen and exposing of alleged fraud on the part of leadership, more so at the top, is a matter than should be of great concern to citizens,” he told the Star.

But Peter Kagwanja, a Murang’a Senator aspirant, held that the events were purely political, much as they could have an impact on the governance of the country.

“Yes, it is affecting governance but it is part of the politics. This is part of the campaign to finish this hustler debate. What I see is an aim to push Ruto out of Jubilee and allow the government to do its work,” he said.

Kagwanja added that the bid is also to answer the DP “because he is talking too much in undermining government and causing unnecessary panic.

“The bigger contest is that he has left Jubilee and wants to continue enjoying the privileges yet is already promoting his party’s ideals,” the senator aspirant said.

By The Star