New revelations now indicate that President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election bid could be under threat following what has been described as a growing rift between the Jubilee Party Secretariat and the State House team over who will spearhead Uhuru's campaign.
A source, who is reportedly in the Presidential Strategic Communication Unit (PSCU), told the Daily Nation that the State House team is feeling left out of the President's campaign team.
The team at the Jubilee Party Headquarters in Pangani, on the other hand, believe that they are running the show, and therefore should own the campaign and also make key communication decisions and pronouncements regarding the president's re-election bid.
The battle for supremacy in the Uhuru Campaign team has apparently been widening after coalitions and parties were cautioned against using civil servants for political communication, to avoid conflict of interest and negative publicity.
Those at State House are allegedly afraid of the emergence of a new power and they view it as a threat to their jobs should Kenyatta win in the August polls.
“Their fear is that the Pangani team might upstage them and come for their jobs after the elections,” stated the source
However on Sunday, Jubilee Head of Secretariat Raphael Tuju downplayed the rift between the two team indicating that they have a good working relationship.
"President Kenyatta is our candidate and he lives in State House,” Mr Tuju said of the two teams’ relationship. “We need to, and we do have a detailed structure and it is easy to get in touch.”
“The people at State House are career civil servants. We are a campaign team at Pangani. It will be impossible to feud over anything. We handle the party and State House handles the President as Head of State. Simple,” he stated.
Mr Tuju further termed the allegation that the two teams were having a rift as mere “speculations” meant to spoil the good name of the President.
