Kioni dismisses 'wantam' slogan, says opposition losing focus

 Jubilee Party Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni now says the opposition has lost the way because they have failed to discuss issues afflicting Kenyans and concentrated on who will get what position.

According to Kioni, the Opposition has forgotten to hold President William Ruto to account for his failures in the three years he has served as the President.

“They have used that opportunity to praise themselves and lie to Kenyans.  We should bring our minds together and hold them to account as we silently organize ourselves on how to remove him from power in 2027,” he said.

In an interview with a vernacular TV station, Kioni addressed the  mistrust within the opposition and painted a picture of backbiting and lack of appreciation by the teammates.

“It’s wrong for a leader within the Opposition to brand the Jubilee party as a 'red wheelbarrow’ that belongs to Ruto as that depicts us as Ruto workers. Anybody trying to associate the Jubilee Party and our party leader Uhuru Kenyatta with UDA is the one who has been deployed by Ruto to divide the Opposition,” Kioni said.

Kioni was referring to former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who has urged the residents of Mt Kenya to reject any other party other than his Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) claiming the President intended to use other parties to divide and rule the region in his 2027 re-election strategy.

“He (Ruto) knows that his UDA party has lost following and for that reason he will come in the region hiding through smaller parties. He will come with blue wheelbarrow, red wheelbarrow and other colors, but he is working with those parties to confuse our region and I urge you to reject them,” Gachagua said in a recent meet the people tour in Nyeri.

However, Kioni maintained that the Opposition leaders needed to appreciate each other to avoid giving Ruto an undue advantage in getting his second term.

“There is no one with a power of tongue to criticize Ruto as Gachagua has, since he started taking him head-on. Every one of us has something to bring to the table…There is no need of going to hit out at each other,” Kioni said.

At the same time, Kioni dismissed the Wantam ‘one term’ political sloganeering, which he said has made the Opposition lose track, saying it had given Ruto a moment to strategize for a second term as it had departed to the ‘no term’ narrative that was pushing Ruto out of power.

“Delegations are being deployed to the State House to counter our original plan of occupying the State House. We need a new momentum that will give us warmth and let Ruto know that he can be removed from power,’ he said.

He claimed that since Gachagua’s impeachment, the anger against the government was converted into sympathy, and Kenyans have stopped concentrating on Ruto’s failures.

 But he maintained that Gachagua was permanently impeached and can only contest the Presidency after being cleared by the courts.

“The trust given to the President or the Deputy President can only be taken away through impeachment in a political process and once it is done, it is over. The  only way to regain the trust is when the courts declare that you were impeached illegally. Once impeached you are permanently impeached even if there is an appeal pending in a court you can’t contest,” he reiterated.

 He, however, wished Gachagua well in his efforts to fight off the impeachment, saying they needed him in the Opposition to bring checks and balances against the government.

Gachagua has repeatedly maintained that he was eligible to vie for Presidency on the basis that the constitution and ongoing court processes preserve his eligibility to remain a candidate in the 2027 presidential race, provided the court rules in favor of his 2024 impeachment.

" I’m qualified, and I have support. The Constitution guarantees your right to vie for elective office even if you have been convicted, if you have not exhausted the remedies available in law. The Supreme Court has not made a ruling on my impeachment,” Gachagua said last month.