NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 13 — A fierce exchange between allied forces in retired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s succession planning team escalated on Saturday with key players resorting to name-calling.
The latest escalation followed a media interview by controversial political scientist Mutahi Ngunyi who laid bare underhand tactics deployed against President William Ruto’s campaign.
“Dear Wajacoyah. At the CORE, you are what Political Scientists call a Useful IDIOT. Clever, BUT Stupid. That is WHY we FUNDED your Manifesto LAUNCH to irritate Ruto,” Mgunyi tweeted.
Responding to revelations on the staging of his 2022 campaign launch to coincide with Ruto’s, Roots Party Leader George Wajackoyah branded Ngunyi an “intellectual harlot” questioning his credibility.
“The remarks are baseless, unfounded and serve to insult our party. Roots Party is a national party and does not subscribe to tokenism, a field Mutahi Ngunyi holds a PHD in,” Wajackoyah said in a response circulated on Sunday.
“We refuse to be used as an entry narrative in unholy political matrimony,” he said referring to Ngunyi’s defection to Ruto’s camp and his speculated re-entry into the President’s strategy team.
Wajackoyah accused Ngunyi using his position in the party for his own political advantage, perhaps to negotiate fro a place in President Ruto’s administration.
“For a man who survives by peddling false political conjectures, it is at least worrying that he will use our party to kneel before Ruto,” he said.
Eclipsing Ruto’s launch
Wajackoyah spoke even as his then running mate Justina Wamae appeared to support Ngunyi’s assertions on the use of Roots Party to eclipse Ruto’s campaign launch on June 30, 2022.
“This revelation explains why he (Wajackoyah) resulted to violence and intimidation thinking I will ask for the little money he got from the State,” she said.
“Since that day till today I have never spoken to that Rastaman (Wajackoyah),” Wamae added.
Wamae figuratively referred to Ngunyi’s revelations as “a pregnancy that cannot be hidden anymore”.
Following his defeat in the election alongside Raila Odinga, Kenyatta’s preferred candidate who enjoyed the backing of the State at the time, Wajackoyah briefly endorsed Ruto before joining forces with Odinga in mounting a resistance campaign against the government.
Ngunyi claimed Azimio Coalition led by Kenyatta provided funding to Wajackoyah’s party with the intention of undermining Ruto’s momentum.
“That is why we funded your manifesto launch to irritate Ruto,” he said.
Ngunyi went further to claim that he would have engineered a run-off had Kenyatta allowed him to “use” Wajackoyah.
