President Uhuru Kenyatta has yet again given strong indication that he won’t cling to power, after the expiry of his presidential term in 2022.
In what seemed like a response to sustained call by some leaders for him to go for the prime minister’s seat as proposed in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report.
President Kenyatta said that no one works all his life.
“Na unajua si eti mtu atakuwa kazini maisha. Baadaye nitakwenda kwa familia, lazima nichunge mambo huku pia, (No one will be at work all his life, you must spend time with your family at some point,” the President said.
“You know even if I don’t attend this family meeting, I will be admonished and told that every time there is such a family meeting, I don’t attend while at the end of my time I will go home and be with them,” the President added even as he pleaded with the congregants to allow him attend a scheduled family meeting.
The President was speaking on Sunday at AIC Milimani during the coronation of presiding Bishop Abraham Mulwa and his deputy reverend Paul Kirui.
The event was attended by Deputy President William Ruto and his wife Rachel Ruto.
Others were Cabinet Secretaries Fred Matiangi (interior), Charles Keter (energy), Prof George Magoha (Education), Simo Chelugui (Labour) and Prof Margaret Kobia (Gender) and a host governors and MPs.
Last year, in November, Uhuru while addressing a meeting with Central leaders at Sagana State Lodge, said he wouldn’t mind being in leadership in such Prime Minister post though pleaded for calm.
Former Jubilee Party vice-chairman David Murathe has more often than not insisted that President Kenyatta might remain in power, but in a different capacity, after the expiry of his presidential term in 2022.
Murathe has held that once the new political dispensation envisaged in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report comes into force, Kenyatta will have the right to vie for any post since he will remain the de facto leader of Jubilee Party, and could even claim the proposed post of Prime Minister.
While on the other hand, Deputy President William Ruto has declared that President Uhuru Kenyatta will not extend his rule beyond 2022.
“I do not believe the President has any plans to change the Constitution to extend the presidential term limit. I say this because I know the President and he respects democracy. And, for the avoidance of doubt, the Jubilee Party has no scheme to change the Constitution and take back this country to the dark days of politics where power stuck in one corner,” he said the burial of area MP Rigathi Gachagua’s mother, Martha Kirigo Gachagua.
Ruto’s statement is contradicted by remarks of some of his allies in the Rift Valley backyard, who have insisted said they have no problem with President Kenyatta assuming the prime minister’s role as long as DP Ruto is President under a coalition partnership.
On Sunday, when he rose to speak Ruto stirred clear of politics instead calling on the church to pray for peace and harmony.
“This is a time for all of us to unite and work together and fulfill the words of Matthew 5:9,” Ruto said.
But when Controversial Gatundu South MP was given the chance to address the gathering, he hailed the President Kenyatta for his speech saying Kenyan leaders needs to have a transitional culture to grow our nationhood.
“At every phase, we need have a renewal as a country, it is very healthy,” Kuria said.
But in a thinly veiled attack at ODM leader Raila Odinga said, he needs to exit political stage just like late senator John McCain and Mitt Romney, who both vied unsuccessfully for US presidential seats but later called it a day.
Not for those only in power but also those leaders who have tried vying for political seats, even if they have not been in office, it is heathy for them to exit the stage and let someone take the mantle,” the Gatundu South Lawmaker explained.
