Azimio surprised by Ruto's 'BBI' offer to Mudavadi

President Uhuru Kenyatta, Suna East MP Junet Mohamed and ODM Party leader Raila Odinga [David Gichuru, Standard]

Azimio la Umoja have branded Deputy President William Ruto a “hypocrite” for opposing BBI, which proposed an expansion of the Executive, yet he’s now offering Musalia Mudavadi a senior post that doesn’t exist in the current Executive structure.

According to a coalition agreement document deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties, Musalia Mudavadi will take up the Prime Cabinet Secretary position should Ruto win the August 9 presidential election.

The position is akin to that of a prime minister in an expanded executive.

His functions, as per the agreement, will include assisting the president and his deputy in coordinating and supervising ministries and State departments, coordinating national government functions, chairing and coordinating legislative agenda and performing functions as may be assigned by the president.

Should Ruto win the presidency, then he will through an Executive Order, create the position of Prime CS within 14 days after swearing-in.

Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress (ANC) will also propose several Cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries and ambassadors, taking up 30 per cent of government alongside Moses Wetangula’s Ford-Kenya.

Wetangula, as per the agreement, will be proposed as Speaker of the National Assembly.

UDA, which is Ruto’s sponsor party, will take up the president and deputy president positions, with a bulk of government centred around it.

These revelations have triggered a response from Raila Odinga’s team, with Junet Mohamed, who is the Secretary-General of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition, criticising the DP for rejecting the BBI, yet he seems to be adopting a semblance of the thrown-out reforms report.

“Ruto has opposed the BBI vehemently for the last five years. Today, he is creating the same position that the BBI Taskforce was advocating for – the prime minister and deputy prime minister. Ruto is not [even] ashamed of himself,” Junet Mohamed said during a press conference in Kilifi on Thursday, May 12.

“That tells you the kind of character [that] we are dealing with, a hypocrite. He is the man who said we do not need BBI, we do not need to create positions [for a few politicians], but now, he is re-inventing BBI through the back door. You can fool some people for some time but you cannot fool all the people all the time," said Junet.

Ruto had called out President Uhuru Kenyatta, ODM boss Raila Odinga, Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka, among other leaders affiliated to the Azimio outfit for “ganging up to create plum positions for a few people”.

“The end of reggae is the end of political conmanship in Kenya. The [Supreme Court] ruling is a validation that BBI was an illegal and an unconstitutional exercise,” he said on March 31 after the apex court judges dealt the reforms push a final blow.