How ‘Deep State’ failed to secure Raila’s presidency
Blame games have now rocked the Azimio coalition after it became clear that William Ruto would be the fifth President. Kenya Regional News has obtained details as to what went wrong for the Azimio coalition in the August 9th general elections.
According to a source close to Raila’s secretariat, the coalition fronted two formidable forces deemed the dream team. One faction was to push Raila’s campaign, led by Junet Mohammed, while the other group was to handle IEBC, this was led by Raphael Tuju.
The group led by Junet Mohammed, according to the insider, had completely worked as per the plan and it had succeeded in neutralizing the influence of the President-elect. The strategy this team deployed was to project Raila as the leading candidate. Their plan was backed up by opinion polls.
Despite tremendous achievements in neutralizing Ruto, the team that was key to handing Raila the presidency failed terribly. Raphael Tuju had one job, and that was to manage Chebukati and his team.
At around 1am on 14th August, 2022, Raphael Tuju met with the four IEBC commissioners to brief him about the progress at Bomas. The team led by Juliana Cherera told Raphael Tuju that things were not looking good for Azimio, and that they needed to activate the system.
Raphael Tuju escalated the outcome of the meeting to the top organs of the party. According to the source, the DCI were then alerted to come up with charges against Chebukati and some of his staff. This explains the arrests and abductions of the IEBC staff.
Tuju, in the company of powerful government officials, visited Chebukati at around 3:30 am. During the meeting, Chebukati was told not to announce William Ruto as the President-elect as this was going to burn the country. The security bosses warned Chebukati and told him that he would be held responsible if anything happened.
Police boss Noor Gabow was instructed to keep vigil and to manage Chebukati and his team. He was instructed not to allow the Chairman to announce results until he cooperated.
In one instance, the IEBC chair was told that the military would not allow Ruto to be president.
Cherera and his team were instructed to be present and make sure that Chebukati doesn’t announce the winner if it’s not Raila odinga. When it became apparent that Chebukati was going to announce the results, the four commissioners rushed to Serena to make a statement.
A source who was at Bomas said that the police were prepared to arrest Chebukati but the GSU and Ruto’s security details managed to overpower Noor Gabow and his team. The police had no choice but to allow the process to continue.
The Azimio brigade are now blaming Tuju and his team for failing to deliver on their part. The source notes that the team was disorganized and lacked a clear plan to take over the government.
Some other close allies of Raila Odinga have started attacking the outgoing President, calling his support for Raila a ‘long con’ after the so called deep state failed to deliver.
“Baba, you will forever be my hero. They played you all along. It was a long con. We live to fight another day,” Embakasi East MP Babu Owino said in a tweet.
Is there deep state in Kenya?
