allAfrica.com: Kenya: Knives Out in Kitchen Cabinet (Page 1 of 3)

When President Mwai Kibaki summoned embattled Finance Minister Amos Kimunya to State House, Nairobi on Saturday afternoon, there was widespread anticipation that he was going to be asked to step aside to pave away for investigations into the raging Grand Regency Hotel saga.

The fury of secret media briefings as the meeting went on was a clear indication that Mr Kimunya has more implacable and powerful rivals than the ones who humiliated him on the floor of the House earlier in the week and that those rivals are inside President Mwai Kibaki's Kitchen Cabinet - an informal grouping of presidential cronies from Central Kenya.

As it turned, Mr Kimunya walked out of State House at about 4 p.m. a relieved man, having survived another day, to face more battles in which his integrity has been questioned and his presence in parliament declared unwanted.

The infighting amongst the President's inner circle, described by one senior government official as "bad blood" and by a powerful Cabinet minister as "sibling rivalry" has left Mr Kimunya and his allies believing that he has been stabbed in the back, the Sunday Nation has learnt.

The war in the kitchen cabinet played itself out on Tuesday night when his presumed allies did not lift a finger in his assistance when the motion of censure came up for discussion before the House Business Committee, that day chaired by Deputy Leader of Government Business and Justice minister, Ms Martha Karua.

The revelations about infighting in the Kibaki circle came as Cabinet colleagues and members of parliament piled pressure on Mr Kimunya to step aside or be sacked pending investigations into Grand Regency saga that has gripped the country.

Such was the desertion of the Kimunya camp in the House that Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka could not get the votes to have the motion of censure moved to Wednesday. The VP could not even get the support of 15 MPs to demand a physical count of the votes on his motion of adjournment.

A source with good knowledge of Mr Kibaki's closest associates told the Sunday Nation that political rivalries are about political supremacy in the Kikuyu tribe and the overall leadership of the so-called Mt Kenya region, which also includes Embu and Meru.

Mr Kibaki, who is not eligible for re-election, will be stepping down not only from the presidency but also from his presumed leadership of his region.

Those believed to be lining up to inherit his mantle, and possibly run for president, are Ms Karua, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Kimunya.

Ms Karua has some goodwill because of her spirited defence of Mr Kibaki during the post-election crisis and the subsequent negotiations during which she played a prominent role. She has made no secret about her ambitions and is now the chairperson of Narc-Kenya.

Mr Kenyatta, son of founding President Jomo Kenyatta, was the handpicked successor of retired President Moi and lost the presidency to Mr Kibaki in 2002. He did not oppose Mr Kibaki in 2007 and broke off from the Orange Democratic Movement to support him, possibly in the hope that he will run in 2012.

Mr Kimunya enjoys a close relationship with the President and his family, going back many years. He is also, in the view of some observers, the "blue-eyed boy" of the Muthaiga Group, an informal set of the President's wealthy friends. Mr Kimunya was once chairman of the Muthaiga Golf Club, the President's golf club, a useful networking position and something of an asset in the social pecking order.

Prof George Saitoti, believed to be a calculating and inscrutable politician, is also waiting in the wings for his chance to run.

On Saturday, a Cabinet minister recounted to the Sunday Nation how Mr Kimunya was "set up" by his presumed allies a day before the crucial debate.

"The previous day, we held a meeting in the Vice President's office in which it was agreed that Kimunya was to sit back and let others come to his defence. They would respond on his behalf especially if the debate on the motion assumed political overtones," a source who attended the Jogoo House meeting said.

Mr Kimunya, the Sunday Nation learnt, was "shocked" to see that it was only the VP who stood with him arguing that debate on the motion be postponed to the following day to allow "the government side more time to prepare."

Even as Mr Musyoka argued for more time, a number of ministers watched the show from the comfort of their seats, never once choosing to catch the Speaker's eye and support the VP.

It is instructive, observers say, that the House Business Committee, in which senior members of government sit, approved the Kimunya motion even though the same government needed more time to prepare a defence.

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