Internal coup at State House

Following President Kibaki's outright declaration that he will defend his seat this year shrugging claims he had promised to serve one term, the political landscape is assuming diametrical proportions as realignments emerge from right, left and centre.

The intense jostling for power within the corridors of power has picked up so much tempo, it is threatening to boil over into the open as a new camp allied to the fast rising minister for education Prof George Saitoti muscles its way into the centre stage of power politics. For years Saitoti had been dogged by the ghosts of the multi-billion shilling Goldenberg scam and had all but been written off when he quit the cabinet last year but he is now back with a bang after a court cleared him of any wrong doing.

In what is likely to cause ripples in the corridors of power that was starting to craft a delicate power balance with eyes on the coming elections, Saitoti has stunned both friend and foe by openly declaring he will go for the chairman slot of Narc Kenya the party likely to sponsor Kibaki presidential candidature. Political watchers are puzzled why Saitoti believed to have roots in central province would try to angle himself as to become Kibaki's deputy a scenario that has never happened in the history of independent Kenya where both the president and his deputy come form the same tribe.

Apart from the chairman's seat, it is said, powerful forces are now hastily packaging Saitoti for the seat of VP which he held for 13 years during Moi's reign, in case President Kibaki retains his seat in the forthcoming elections.

Only a few days ago, it had been taken for granted that vice president Moody Awori would be Kibaki's VP after the Funyula MP made it clear he would defend his seat and help his boss get re-elected.

Those in the know however say that matter for Awori started getting complicated when Saitoti was re-appointed to his former ministry of education docket from where he had been hounded out following a loud chorus from Kenyans demanding his dismissal for alleged complicity in the Godenberg scandal.

It has now emerged that the powerful PS for strategic planning Stanley Murage who is a long time friend of Saitoti worked overtime to see Saitoti declared clean so as to give him time to sell himself to Narc-K members. The move, it is said, left Awori with little time to mount a defense battalion as the same schemers had deliberately given him the impression that he would be their automatic choice thus making Awori complacent.

Having realized too late that his position was shaky, Awori has now been jerked from his slumber and hence his now frantic efforts to make up for lost time. Had Awori known what was on his colleagues' sleeves, his stunned lieutenants are now openly pointing out, they would have done everything in their capacity to stop the clean bill of health being handed to saitoti.

How he would have done that, his henchmen do not say but if the warfare tactics being employed by yet another top Kibaki confidante Amos Kimunya in his bid to stay at the Treasury is anything to go by, then Awori would have liked to expose more dirt about Saitoti.