Kenya: Kenyatta moves to end family rivalry, rallies support for Raila Odinga’s Presidency  

President Uhuru Kenyatta is casting the age-long family feud between his family with that of Odinga Odinga to support the presidential bid of the former opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga.


Uhuru’s father and Kenya first post-independent President, Jomo Kenyatta and Raila’s father, Oginga Odinga were political rivals till death. Jomo Kenyetta, a London School of Economics educated statesman died on August 22, 1978 while his rival died on January 1994. The politics of Kenya has been dominated by this two families since the British colonial power left on December 12, 1963.


Uhuru and Raila were rivals in bitterly contested two presidential election in 2013 and 2017 that sparked violence and led to the death of hundreds of Kenyans.


In an astonishing departure from rivalry of the past, President Kenyatta has convened a meeting of Mt Kenya leaders at Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri County, dubbed Sagana Three, widely expected to be his first public forum in the region to root for Mr Odinga’s presidential candidacy according to www.msm.com


Coming soon after he recently declared he will start campaigning for his preferred successor, the President’s allies yesterday styled the meeting as a political tsunami that will influence the region’s direction in the August 9 General Election.


The meeting, according to multiple sources within President Kenyatta’s camp, is expected next week ahead of the Jubilee Party National Delegates Convention (NDC).The Head of State is expected to use the occasion to launch an onslaught against his estranged deputy, Dr William Ruto, who has publicly declared he is the region’s kingpin.


President Kenyatta is working with Mr Odinga, and their parties—Jubilee and ODM—have convened their NDCs on February 25 and 26 as they seek to ratify their coalition plans. But yesterday, the DP, who was in Murang’a with his Kenya Kwanza Alliance team, dared Mr Odinga, and by extension his boss, President Kenyatta, to a duel in the vote-rich region.


“I know even if he is helped by who, Kenyans will be quick to know he is clueless on what are the country’s priorities,” the second-in-command said.


Jubilee vice-chairman David Murathe had hinted that President Kenyatta would soon meet Mt Kenya leaders and explain to them why he fell out with his deputy.


Kenyatta, the leader of the East Africa’s biggest economy has so far held two meetings at Sagana State Lodge dubbed Sagana One and Two, and at next week’s Sagana Three, he is expected to signal to the region the direction of his succession and reveal what went wrong between him and Ruto, the Deputy President.
 
Additional report from www.msm.com

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