Uhuru ‘Warembo’ women groups in a row over clash of names
A bitter row is brewing between two competing women groups campaigning for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election in 2017, after a clash of names.
The fight pits the ‘Warembo na UhuRuto’ group that was launched in September against the ‘Warembo na Uhuru’ set to be unveiled on Thursday at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi.
The UhuRuto slogan was coined in the run up to the March 2013 elections when President Uhuru Kenyatta picked William Ruto as his running mate and deputy.
Now, the ‘Warembo na UhuRuto’ says that the new group was sowing seeds of discord in the newly unveiled Jubilee Party.
“The group ‘Warembo na Uhuru’ purporting to support the President has a malicious agenda of bringing division between him and the deputy president,” Naomi Jelagat, a nominated Member of the Uasin Gishu County Assembly and the UhuRuto Rift Valley coordinator said.
WAREMBO NA UHURU
Ms Jelagat added: “If they are genuine, they could have joined one indispensable outfit, UhuRuto. They are haters of deputy president and are planning to sabotage his 2022 agenda.”
The ‘Warembo na UhuRuto’ group was founded by Ms Wambui Nyutu who insisted that the new lobby group did not augur well with the call for unity in the ‘Tuko Pamoja’ slogan.
“(Lobby groups to campaign for Jubilee) should have a national outlook and should strive to propagate the Jubilee agenda across the country. It should also, most importantly seek to unite voters across the country,” said Ms Nyutu.
But Benson Mureria, the patron of the ‘Warembo na Uhuru’ group, said that the formation of the new group was for the good of Jubilee.
He said that he envisions the merger of the many lobby groups “in the future”.
‘NO UHURU WITHOUT RUTO’
“For now, we want to work differently and make sure that each group is strong. We will merge, but not now,” said Mr Mureria.
Mr Mureria said the KICC launch on Thursday will be attended by a number of sitting members of Parliament as well as those aspiring to win elective seats on the Jubilee Party ticket.
But the ‘Warembo na UhuRuto’ Deputy Secretary General Yvonne Tonkei Enkini said that in Jubilee “there is no Uhuru without Ruto or Ruto without Uhuru.”
“A group purporting to support Uhuru but doesn’t support Ruto serves to bring division among jubilee supporters,” said Ms Enkini.
She added: “We strongly condemn any outfit formed to destroy the trust, friendship and the good faith that President Uhuru and DP Ruto have.”
