By Clinton Ochieng
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s wing of the coalition has said that the removal of Deputy President William Ruto from his position as Jubilee deputy party leader will not affect his constitutional office.
Raphael Tuju, Jubilee Secretary-General said yesterday that Ruto was on his way out of the ruling party because of his advancing ideologies of another team, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
Tuju said the party’s National Management Committee (NMC) last October recommended that Ruto be stripped of his deputy party leadership position after he was accused of leaving the party when his allies started associating with UDA.
He said the decision to eject Ruto and his allies from the party was meant to give them the space to pursue their interests in other political parties.
“There is a group of leading politicians in the party, who have decided to technically defy and move out of the party. From what we have been seeing of late, it is obvious that they moved on and we want to let them move on,” said Tuju.
He finally stated that even though NEC had not met, the decision made in October was still in force.
Ruto’s fate in the party will be decided by the National Executive Council (NEC), which is chaired by the President. The last NEC meeting was held in 2017.