This archive report was first published on 6 September 2021.
Published on September 6, 2021, the Jubilee party has dismissed the mechanism to push for Deputy President William Ruto's resignation from his elective post and the party.
Deputy President Ruto has shifted his base to the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to vie for the presidency in 2022, a move that has strained his relationship with President Uhuru Kenyatta.
On Monday, Jubilee party officials led by Secretary General Raphael Tuju and Majority Leader in the National Assembly Amos Kimunya said it was up to Ruto to quit.
“When you belong to one political party, you cannot promote the interests of another political party. You are deemed to have resigned from the former political party,” Kimunya said.
The relationship between President Kenyatta and his deputy has been on the rocks since March 2018 when the Head of State shook hands with Opposition leader Raila Odinga and invited him to the government in what Ruto saw as a ploy to lock him out of the 2022 succession.
Since then, Ruto has resorted to criticising the government from within, including opposing the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) plan to amend the Constitution which was dismissed by the Constitutional Court as null and void.
The ruling party has also called on Ruto to declare the source of his wealth following revelations by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i last week.
“They have no respect, these unwarranted attacks on the first family must stop. The founding president is not around to defend himself,” Tuju said.
