Sunday, December 11, 2011

Uhuru to outline Kanu strategy for 2012



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Kanu chairman Uhuru Kenyatta during the 2008 National Delegates Conference. Photo/FILE
Kanu chairman Uhuru Kenyatta during the 2008 National Delegates Conference. Photo/FILE 
By OLIVER MATHENGE omathenge@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Sunday, December 11  2011 at  01:06
Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has planned a retreat of the Kanu National Executive Council next weekend to put his party in order as he seeks leverage over other presidential hopefuls in the PNU Alliance.
The retreat at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha will also be attended by PNU MPs who are originally Kanu members.
The meeting is being touted as one to “revitalise Kanu”, but it is also expected to be heated due to unending wrangles in the former ruling party.
Mr Kenyatta has been embroiled in a party leadership wrangle with his deputy Gideon Moi, and his supporters see the party as a liability to his presidential ambition. Mr Moi and his troops have accused the DPM of neglecting the party and concentrating on PNU.
The invitation signed by the Finance minister himself does not include the agenda for the meeting though sources close to Mr Kenyatta intimated that the future of the party and how it relates with others will dominate the proceedings.
Among the issues to be discussed include rebranding Kanu and how to sell it as a party of the future.
There is a proposal to adopt a new slogan: “Tuko Pamoja — togetherness, freedom and possibilities”.
Sources said that there is also a plan to market the party as “youthful” and dispense with its youth wing but create a special wing for senior citizens.
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The agenda was also said to contain deliberations on how to seek local and international partners.
“Some Kanu delegates led by the party’s executive officer Joseph Maathai have been in the US meeting Republican and Democrat officials,” an aide to Mr Kenyatta said.
During the weekend retreat in Naivasha, the party officials will also plan a meeting of aspirants who would like to run on a Kanu ticket in the 2012 elections.
The meeting is scheduled to be held at the Bomas of Kenya early next month.
The move by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka (ODM-K), Internal Security Minister George Saitoti (PNU) and Eldoret North MP William Ruto (UDM) to market their individual political parties has been causing anxiety within the G7 Alliance, sending Mr Kenyatta and his allies back to the drawing board.
“The VP, Prof Saitoti and Mr Ruto have their parties so it is important that Mr Kenyatta also drives the Kanu car to whichever alliance it is. He cannot walk to the alliance when others are driving. That said, he is still committed to the PNU Alliance and the wider G7 Alliance,” one of his aides told the Sunday Nation.
A group of PNU MPs have already been meeting under the banner of United Democratic Forum Party.
Though most of the MPs are allied to the Finance minister, he disowned the party at its formation.
Political vehicle
MPs allied to Mr Kenyatta have been raising concerns that Mr Kenyatta did not have a political vehicle that could be identified as his political vehicle and had a backing of all his supporters.
But some of the DPM’s aides say that he wants to be identified with Kanu and is backing its rebranding and thus next weekend’s meeting.
On Friday night at a meeting with professionals from the Meru region, Mr Kenyatta said he would battle it out with those who want the PNU Alliance presidential ticket but insisted that he still has his Kanu party.
He dismissed people saying that a Kikuyu cannot lead the country after President Kibaki retires next year.
Mr Kenyatta told the gathering at Safari Park Hotel that the Mt Kenya region should be in a single party with a national outlook and get a single presidential candidate through a free, fair and democratic nomination process.

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