Close to half of the 22 Cabinet Secretaries had signalled their intention to run for seats in the August 9 General Election.
Several members of Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta Cabinet have suspended their ambitions for elective office this year, averting potential falling-out within the coalition he is building behind his preferred successor Raila Odinga. Close to half of the 22 Cabinet Secretaries had in the recent past signalled their intention to run for seats in the August 9 elections.
But only four of them resigned by the February 9 deadline set by law for appointed public officials aspiring for elective office to do so.
Three of the exiting ministers have declared affiliations to Mr Odinga’s Azimio La Umoja Movement coalition, with the other backing Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.
Mr Odinga and Mr Ruto are the front runners in the race to succeed President Kenyatta. The decision by a majority in the Cabinet to shelve their ambitions for elective office especially comes a relief for President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga, who are keen to avoid fallouts within their nascent Azimio coalition.
A number of the Cabinet Secretaries, among them Peter Munya (Agriculture), Ukur Yatani (Treasury), Mutahi Kagwe (Health), Eugene Wamalwa (Defence) and Najib Balala (Tourism), are career politicians in their own right having served as county governors, senators or Members of Parliament in the past or double as political party leaders currently. Their return to elective politics had the potential to reignite local turf wars with rivals who are currently leaning towards Mr Odinga’s presidential candidacy. President Kenyatta’s success in persuading his key ministers to stay, meanwhile, suggests he is going for broke in his succession plan.
On Monday, he indicated he was finally ready to embark on a more aggressive campaign for his preferred successor, ending his self-imposed restraint from politicking for the better part of his second term starting 2018.
The President also aimed a rare direct salvo at his deputy in public, accusing him of spending too much time campaigning on top of cars instead of working for the people.
Mr Ruto has since returned fire, telling the President he deserves as much credit for the current administration’s successes, including considerable expansion of infrastructure across the country over the past nine and a half years.
At several public rallies the Deputy President and his allies in the Kenya Kwanza Alliance addressed this past week, they also appeared to escalate targeted attacks on President Kenyatta for trying to manage his succession.
With the President having also announced he is about to roll up his sleeves, a no-holds-barred political fight between the country’s two most powerful men is set to be a key highlight of the campaigns in the six months to August.
The battle lines are particularly drawn in the populous Mt Kenya region, the President’s traditional political stronghold where he will be looking to head off a Ruto wave and try to flip it for Mr Odinga.