We neutralised DP Ruto, Murathe on Uhuru impeachment plot

Jubilee Party Vice-Chairperson David Murathe. [File, Standard]

Jubilee Party Vice-Chairperson David Murathe says they had to move fast to stop a “scheming” deputy president, William Ruto, in his tracks.

Murathe said after President Uhuru Kenyatta received intelligence that Ruto was plotting to impeach the Head of State, they had to act fast and remove his (Ruto’s) proxies in the bicameral House of Parliament.

The impeachment plot was allegedly hatched after President Kenyatta won re-election in 2017.

Murathe said, it was through the senior House leaders, that the DP was plotting the surprise take-over.

In the lead-up to the March 9, 2018 handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga, Ruto was, reportedly, courting the opposition with the intention of raising the requisite number to remove Uhuru from office through parliamentary action.

Junet Mohamed, a close ally of Raila Odinga, on Thursday, March 31 told the Daily Nation that Ruto had promised Raila Odinga the deputy president position and half of Cabinet slots should Raila help him evict Uhuru from State House.

Mohamed said they read mischief in Ruto’s plot, and decided not to pursue it to realisation.

David Murathe now says the president’s side had to act swiftly after catching wind of the DP’s plan.

“When we made the leadership changes in Parliament [in 2020], it was purely because we had discovered the deputy president’s mischief,” Murathe told The Standard.

“For long, people wondered why Uhuru fell out with Ruto. He (Ruto) had managed to put his allies in key leadership positions in Parliament, including the Majority Leader and Chief Whip posts in both the National Assembly and the Senate,” said Murathe.

The Ruto point-persons in both Houses were the president’s first casualties after the Head of State learnt of the said-impeachment plot.

They included Kipchumba Murkomen (Senate Majority Leader), Susan Kihika (Senate Majority Chief Whip), Aden Duale (Majority Leader in the National Assembly) and Benjamin Washiali (Majority Chief Whip in the National Assembly).

Also ejected, were key Parliamentary committee leaders affiliated to Ruto.

In the National Assembly, at least 234 MPs were needed to vote in favour of President Kenyatta’s impeachment for the motion to sail through.

That meant that Ruto needed Raila for the plot to materealise, Junet Mohamed said in the Daily Nation interview.

Murathe says President Kenyatta took his time before he could kick out Ruto’s allies from Parliamentary leadership because he (Kenyatta) needed assurance that Raila Odinga would fully support him after the handshake.

“We couldn’t swing into action without a plan, we couldn’t expunge them based on impulse; we had to be strategic. After Kenyatta held extensive talks with Raila, we were sure that ODM was supporting us,” Murathe said.

The Jubilee Vice-Chairperson said after the ODM-Jubilee camaraderie stabilised, they also hatched a plot to have the DP removed from office, buoyed by their newly-found high numbers in Parliament.

Lugari MP Ayub Savula was to table the Ruto impeachment motion, said Murathe.

“We had agreed to have him (Ruto) impeached. Upon catching wind of our plot, his side decided to go slow on the Uhuru-impeachment plans. At that time, it was clear to them that the Uhuru-Raila side had superior numbers in Parliament. We made them understand that without Raila Odinga’s support in both Houses of Parliament, they were a weak side,” said Murathe.

Murathe further said President Kenyatta did not lie when he told the Kikuyu Council of Elders caucus on March 26 that the deputy president had plotted his removal, but the plan backfired.

“Do you think the president can stand and lie to the country?” he posed.

Deputy President William Ruto, however, denies the allegations.

“I am not a fool, a drunkard or a mad man to help put together a government and then go behind it and plan to topple it. As deputy president, I know what I must do, and I will never, I have never, and it has never happened that I will do anything to bring down our government. To those spreading the propaganda, shame on you! Shame! You deserve nothing but shame,” he said in a past address.