Citizen TV's Jeff Koinange on Wednesday evening hosted two MPs from differing factions of the Jubilee Party for a showdown on JKL.
Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung'wa is perceived to be a member of Deputy President William Ruto's allies who are popularly known as 'team tanga tanga'. Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu coined the word Kieleweke himself and is believed to be more loyal to the President Uhuru Kenyatta than the DP.
Ichung'wa started off dismissing the tanga tanga label by stating "We have just been branded as team 'tanga tanga'; we have never defined ourselves as team 'tanga tanga'. We support President Kenyatta and William Ruto as our party leaders in Jubilee."
He termed the kieleweke team as a group of ODM sympathisers, to which Ngunjiri responded "The problem with Ichung’wah, the DP and some of the people they hang out with is that they are arrogant. We are both elected MPs in Jubilee and he has the audacity to say that I’m in ODM. He also makes it sound like it’s an insult to be in ODM."
The Nyeri MP argued that he only supports Raila due to the handshake between the former PM and President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"If tomorrow the president woke up and told me this (handshake) is not working, I will start fighting Raila Immediately; that’s party discipline," Ngunjiri told Jeff.
He, in turn, accused the DP and his allies of sabotaging President Kenyatta by not supporting the handshake.
"When you attack the handshake, when you are from Jubilee, the person you are actually attacking is Uhuru," Ngunjiri added.
"We do not have two leaders in Jubilee, we have one; Ruto does not have anything he does except what he is told to do by the President. When you ask me to support the DP, what are you asking me to support him to do? " the kieleweke team member posed.
Ichung'wa also stated that he too supports the president and termed himself as the president's foot soldier in Parliament.
Speaking about DP Ruto's presidential bid, Ngunjiri stated, "This country is more important than Ruto’s ambition to be president; he needs to stop thinking that everything that is happening in this country will affect his ambition."
The Kikuyu MP, on the other hand, read suspicion over COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli's statement about eliminating the DP from the ballot in 2022.
"Francis Atwoli is not a prophet and if he is, I’m sure he is not a prophet of the good gospel. If we were in another jurisdiction, probably someone would have called him (Atwoli) and asked him to expound on what he said," commented Ichungwa.
