A plan to have Senate Majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen stripped off his lucrative role in the Senate was thwarted by a last minute phone call by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday over the ongoing Mau Forest turf.
Details have emerged that Jubilee Party leadership had waged a plan to kick the Elgeyo Marakwet Senator out of his seat following his recent comment when he was in Narok over the controversial Mau Forest issue.
Mr Murkomen over the weekend dared Kenyatta to contradict him on the evictions, which he said were not only being done inhumanely adding that they had interfered withe the lives of the victims.
“Mr President, today, I want to tell these people that I have come here and I have seen their suffering. I want you to also come to Mau, and tell them whether you stand with (Narok county commissioner George) Natembeya, or the common man who gave you votes,” Mr Murkomen told an excited gathering at Kitoben Primary School in Narok.
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It all started with an immediate reaction from Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja, which, in fact, was an indication that all efforts to have Murkomen out was set. Sakaja said that Murkomen had disrespected Uhuru, the party leader.
The call is said to have promoted the Jubilee secretary general Raphael Tuju to issue a press statement condemning Murkomen’s sentiments, adding that “it was his personal comment’ and that it didn’t not contradict in any way the position of the Jubilee administration.
“The party has a disciplinary committee and they will analyse this. If they think they need to summon him, they’ll summon him,” Mr Tuju told journalists at Jubilee House in Nairobi on Sunday.
He added: “On the Mau Forest, a government must do what it has to do to conserve the Mau. If an individual politician, even if it is the Leader of Majority in the Senate comes with a different position, definitely the position of the Executive prevails.”
This is the second time Murkomen is surviving a plan to dethrone him. In June, Deputy President William Ruto intervened to save outspoken Mr Murkomen from being removed from the chairmanship of the Rift Valley parliamentary caucus.
Mr Murkomen rushed to the DP’s Karen residence pleading for help, just hours before MPs belonging to the Rift Valley caucus were scheduled to meet and pass a vote of no confidence in him. He had made comments on TV that the lifestyle audit ordered by president were targeting DP Ruto.