NAIROBI, Kenya – Former Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju has explained his decision to leave the party, saying it was a personal move aimed at giving him freedom to express his opinions without being tied to any political outfit.
Speaking on NTV’s Fixing the Nation programme on Monday, August 25, Tuju said he resigned last week in a conscious decision that was not influenced by anyone.
“I left Jubilee so that I am free to air my opinions going forward without it being said I am talking on behalf of someone,” he said. “It’s essentially stepping into a free space where I can talk without worrying what Jubilee or Azimio will say. I have no hard feelings. I just quit the party to be free.”
The former Cabinet Minister, who once served as Jubilee Secretary-General and a key ally of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, tendered his resignation in a letter to the former Head of State.
He stressed that, just as he had deliberately chosen to join Jubilee despite strong political support for ODM in his Luo Nyanza backyard, he had also consciously opted to step away.
“This is a personal decision; just like I made a personal decision to join Jubilee Party when obviously the easy thing for me, coming from Luo Nyanza, was to join ODM,” Tuju explained. “In the same way, I have made a conscious decision to resign from Jubilee. There are no hard feelings.”
Tuju ruled out vying for any political office in the near future, insisting that Kenya’s challenges run deeper than personalities or elective positions.
“The problem in Kenya is that everything is seen in terms of political positions, yet most of our problems are structural. The resources allocated to counties are hardly enough for development since most of it goes to recurrent expenditure. Sometimes it has nothing to do with the individual in office,” he said.
