We'll destroy Jubilee before joining 'hustlers' party - MP Didmus Barasa

 

Deputy President William Ruto and his Jubilee faction will not leave the party before wrecking it completely, one of his followers has said.

Speaking in Mombasa, Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa said they will destroy the party from within before they are shoved out.

His remarks followed verbal duels pitting the DP against other party officials after he stormed the party headquarters in Pangani, Nairobi, on Thursday and vowed to work from there going forward.

“We will never leave Jubilee the way it is. We will destroy it completely. We will bring it down completely,” Barasa said.

He said they used a lot of resources to build the outfit and seek votes across the country and will not just leave like a spouse who has been kicked out of a matrimonial house.

“We will leave behind a garden with grass and natural trees with no evidence that Jubilee Party ever existed,” said the Kimilili MP.

He said they will stop paying monthly contributions to the party and instead channel it "elsewhere".

Barasa said the 'hustler nation' has formed more than 45 political parties and they plan to merge them into one formidable outfit "so William Ruto can use that party to realise the dream of the 'hustler nation' of occupying the house on the hill.” 

Teething problems

He spoke even as nominated MP David ole Sankok separately denied claims of a coup in Jubilee.

Sankok, also a Ruto ally, said the party only has teething problems that will soon be amicably solved in-house.

Sankok said on Saturday any Jubilee member is allowed to go to the party headquarters over any issue.

“What is the coup when members of the party go to the party headquarters? There is no coup.

“Our party leader is Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. The deputy party leader is William Samoei arap Ruto. If the party decides that so and so will not be part of the party, it is the decision of the party. But before the decision is made, let us not talk of a coup,” he said.

NO COUP: Nominated MP David ole Sankok at Swahilipot in Mombasa on Saturday.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI

He was in Mombasa to lead the commemoration of International Day for Deaf Persons at Swahilipot.

A day earlier, Jubilee secretary general Raphael Tuju made an announcement barring Ruto from accessing the offices. Ruto was accompanied by more than 30 MPs when he stormed the offices. 

The decision to bar Ruto from accessing the party headquarters was reached after a National Management Committee meeting on Friday. 

In June, Ruto and his allies formed a new operations centre called Jubilee Asili Centre and vowed to coordinate their activities from there. They said they no longer had anything to do with the Pangani offices.

Their return, therefore, caught many by surprise. Prior to that, however, Ruto had visited the place twice to seek clarification on Jubilee's preparations for by-elections across the country. 

Weighing in on the falling-out, Barasa said the only thing Jubilee Party can do to them is denying them tickets for various seats in 2022.

“But we are not going to run on Jubilee tickets. We are going to run on our new political outfit,” Barasa said.

He hit out at Uhuru allies saying they did little to build the party, adding that they made Uhuru not win with more than 70 per cent of the votes in 2017. “They were a big burden when we were looking for votes.”

But Sankok said they are waiting for President Uhuru Kenyatta, Jubilee party leader, to return from his official visit to Paris, France, so they can initiate mechanisms to solve internal issues that have rocked the party.

“I will personally call the President to book an appointment with him so I can tell him that we need to solve our issues without any influence from outside,” he said.

He said Jubilee should be attracting new members after the President extended an olive branch to other parties members through the Handshake.

No ill-feelings

Meanwhile, the nominated MP said he has no ill-feeling towards anyone after his ejection from the National Assembly National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity Committee four days ago. He said the decision was procedural but came after he had minor differences with committee chairman Maina Kamanda.

Sankok said he had criticised Kamanda for flying to New York to attend a conference of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, without involving MPs having different forms of disabilities.

"I told him that is not right because there can be nothing about us without us. So I requested him that next time there is a conference on PWDs, despite their appetite for the allowances, those chances and opportunities should be given to PWDs, not necessarily me.

“How do you discuss our issues when we are not there?” posed the nominated MP, who has a physical disability.

He said in most cases, PWDs are forgotten when critical issues are discussed at conferences.

“When you go for a disaster management conference, you will say whenever there is fire, use the stairs and not the lift. But do you consider those on wheelchairs?

“You will say that the siren will go off, but do you consider those who are not able to hear?” the lawmaker asked.

He said the blind are also forgotten when disaster management classes tell students to look out for the exit signage.

“That is why we are saying at any conference we must be represented. I think that was the difference but I believe it is not the one that caused my de-whipping from the committee.” 

He sarcastically thanked the party leadership for allowing him to serve in the committee, adding that he broke a record for serving in a committee for the shortest time at two months and 14 days.

“In fact, that is a world record. I am the shortest ever serving member of a parliamentary select committee in the world,” Sankok said.