Didmus Barasa: Raila to blame for Jubilee woes

It is clear that the people around President Uhuru Kenyatta are misadvising him.

The fact that the Political Parties Tribunal declared the post-election pact between Kanu and Jubilee illegal, null and void confirms the same.

Why is it so difficult for the Head of State to call a National Executive Committee meeting to ratify whatever changes - if they are good for the country - that he wants?

All these things are being done by ODM leader Raila Odinga’s cabal who have, actually, confirmed what we were saying when opposing the handshake. 

Raila and his cabal have convinced President Kenyatta to abandon the Big Four agenda to an extent that the President is now keen on implementing the agenda of Raila’s cabal.

The future of Jubilee is not going to be in the hands of President Kenyatta and Raila’s cabal because their intention is to kill the party. Since President Kenyatta is retiring from politics, I would want to ask him and Raila to leave Jubilee for us and William Ruto. This is to allow them to team up with whoever they want. If they want to form a coalition with Kanu, they have a democratic right to do so.

Jubilee should not be a one-man show. The fact is that political parties are funded by taxpayers. Jubilee party receives money to run its political activities. The fact that it is funded by the exchequer doesn’t mean the party belongs to an individual.

The party is a public entity where actions that are taken must be in the open, through party organs, and through a consultative forum.

Jubilee is a public entity, we owe it to Kenyans to explain every action we take.

When we were collapsing other parties to form one national party, we were building a party to rival South Africa’s ANC and Tanzania’s CCM.

It is unfortunate we are sliding back to where were; where political parties are owned by individuals for business purposes.

While we are not opposed to some of the things the President wants to do, these must be done in consultation through the party organs.

What is coming out clearly is that Raila wants to use Jubilee for his own political expediency.

We will not go down just like that. We are political sailors, and our sailing tactic towards 2022 will be dictated by conditions of the political waters. If the waters get murkier, we are also going to up our sailing tactic lest we capsize or we drown.

We have more than 10 options, and leaving Jubilee is not one of them.