It seems the leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale is not out of the woods yet after reports emerged that some Jubilee MPs have kicked off the plans to remove him.
The MPs have started collecting signatures in Parliament to oust the Garissa Township MP from his plum position accusing him of being aligned to the ruling party’s Tanga Tanga faction.
But Nyeri Town MP Wambugu Ngunjiri who had been pushing for Duale’s removal lept to his defence saying he had a change of heart after Tuesday Parliamentary Group meeting at State House, Nairobi.
According to Ngunjiri, President Uhuru Kenyatta who is also the Jubilee Party leader has confidence in Duale that is why he retained him in his position.
“It is on record that I wanted Duale removed as Majority Leader. I have been specific about my reasons. However, the President decided otherwise,” the MP says.
“Now I understand that there are some MPs who are collecting signatures to remove Hon Aden Duale,”
“My position is simple. If the President wanted Duale to go, Duale would have gone. The President chose not to remove him – for his own reasons,” he adds.
According to him, it’s fruitless to collect signatures yet the President has made his decision known to all.
“If today the President decides Duale should go, he will not last an hour… The Party will get it done,” says Ngunjiri. “The President doesn’t need us to collect signatures to remove Duale,”
“We cannot second guess the President, and then complain that others are doing it,” he cautioned.
However, on Wednesday Kieni MP Kanini Kega claimed that he had collected 117 signatures and still plans to engineer Duale’s ouster.
Kega is in a group of influential MPs who have been pushing for Duale’s ejection on grounds of disloyalty to the President and argue that the Garissa Town MP is at best ambivalent to the Jubilee Party leader’s agenda.
The Kieni MP, Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter and Garrisa Woman Rep Fatuma Gedi were leading the move which by Thursday evening, June 3, had been endorsed by over 100 members.
