Uhuru Kenyatta
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to resign from as the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition council chairman to focus on his peace project.
The opposition camp is set to convene a meeting in coming days where the former Head of State will relinquish his position in the union of parties that sponsored the presidential bid of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the August polls.
According to his longtime aide David Murathe, Uhuru has already taken a back seat in coalition management since taking on his new duty of coordinating regional peace talks, as entrusted by his successor, President William Ruto.
“We will be having a meeting very soon where he will formally resign as the chairman of the Azimio council. Obviously, you cannot have two drivers steering a bus. This vehicle called Azimio now has one driver and that driver is Jakom,” said Murathe.
“He is now above local politics. Going forward, everything is Jakom and the Azimio system. The council will sit and make a decision about who takes up the position but the overall leader of Azimio is now Jakom and there is no ambiguity about it,” he added.
His intended resignation is also influenced by a legal necessity that he not hold any political party positions in order to get his pension.
According to the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act of 2003, Uhuru Kenyatta has until February 2023 to resign. The impending resignation follows massive pro-establishment defections among Mr Odinga’s core backers.
The defections and Uhuru’s impending retirement are expected to be a big political blow for Raila Odinga, who is now attempting to rally his troops into a major anti-government movement.
Uhuru is also set to resign as the party leader of Jubilee by February, being six months since he left office.
Also Read: Why Uhuru Kenyatta Jetted Out of the Country After Handing Over Power to William Ruto
