Nairobi — The turmoil in former president Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee party deepened Wednesday after acting Secretary General Kanini Kega announced the cancellation of a National Delegates Convention called by the party leader.
Kenyatta had cannounced that the NDC will be held on May 22.
But in a paid-up advertisement in local dailies, Kega said the NDC had been canceled.
“Take notice that the Jubilee Party National Executive Committee (NEC) has suspended the notice for a Special National Delegates Conference published in the print media on April 29,” the notice on local dailies reads in part.
Kega said the meeting was cancelled pending the resolution of party’s leadership disputes at the Office of Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP).
“The party will in due course issue a notice convening a Special National Delegates Conference pursuant to the resolution of NEC dated February 2023,” he said.
Kenyatta-led faction has written to the Registrar of Political parties seeking the deregistration of Kega and nominated MP Sabina Chege who was installed by the rival camp as the acting party leader.
Kenyatta has accused the duo of contravening the party constitution by promoting ideologies of President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance and staging a plan for a coup in the political outfit.
Similarly, the Kega-led team wrote to Ms Nderitu informing her of its decision to oust Kenyatta and have him replaced with Chege.
On May 2nd, Kenyatta was ousted as Jubilee party leader in escalating wrangles in the former ruling party.
The kega-led faction of the party said former Murang’a Woman Rep Sabina Chege is the new party leader in an acting capacity following a National Executive Council (NEC) held on Tuesday.
“Uhuru Kenyatta is no longer our party leader,” Kega said after the meeting in Nairobi, “we have replaced him with Sabina Chege.”
The party has been rocked by leadership wrangles after Kanini clashed with Jeremiah Kioni on who is the bonafide Secretary-General of the former ruling party.
Jubilee Party Vice-Chairman Adan Keynan said the fate of besieged Kioni lies with the party’s internal dispute resolution committee.
This is after the Political Parties Tribunal declined to quash NEC’s resolution that installed Kega as his replacement.
In its judgment delivered on April 16, the tribunal said that the notice for the National Executive Committee meeting issued on February 2 and the subsequent NEC meeting on February 10 which imposed Kega was done in accordance with the party Constitution.