JUBILEE politicians have initiated private talks aimed at reconciling Nairobi County MP Rachel Shebesh and Senator Mike Sonko Mbuvi. According to sources, TNA chairman Johnson Sakaja, Taveta MP Naomi Shaban and Majority Leader Aden Duale have met the two separately to help sort out their issues.
“The two have personal difference and we have asked that they be advised to keep this out of the public domain,” a Jubilee MP who was unwilling to be named said.
This came only a day after Shebesh was involved in a violent quarrel with Sonko at the Parliament’s bar on Tuesday night over what the latter perceive’s to be her close association with the opposition.
The Tuesday incident occurred barely a week after the two allegedly fought at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The hotel incident occurred last Thursday.
Yesterday, Shebesh announced she had quit from all parliamentary committees due to what she said is ‘negative publicity” that she has been receiving in the last few weeks. Shebesh submitted her letter to Duale, Sakaja and the Chief Whip Katoo ole Metito.
On Tuesday, Katoo had informed the National Assembly of Shebesh’s intention to quit from some of the committees. But even as attempts were being made to heal the rift between Sonko and Shebesh, uncertainty was growing within the Jubilee ranks over what is being perceived as a warming up between President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Some of Jubilee diehards are uncomfortable with this new bond and are the ones warning their colleagues not to get too chummy with their Cord counterparts.
Before Tuesday’s incident, Sonko is said to have become infuriated when he overheard Shebesh discussing politics with Raila and politician Rosa Buyu.
“I have warned you before about discussing the President and government issues with Raila. What is this you are doing?,” Sonko was heard asking Shebesh when he confronted her in Parliament and played back the recordings he had made of her phone calls.
In one recording, Shebesh and Buyu are heard discussing Uhuru’s performance during the national prayer breakfast for the victims of the Westgate mall terror attack which was held at the KICC on Tuesday.
“I’m beginning to like my President. Did you see how he was today?,” Shebesh is heard telling Buyu. In another recording, Shebesh is heard talking about some people in Jubilee who do not like Raila yet she says it would be good for Jubilee to work with the the Cord leader.
She told Buyu that some Jubilee people are uncomfortable with Raila because they fear he will overshadow Deputy President William Ruto. Until February, Shebesh was a key member of Raila’s ODM party but she dumped the party a few weeks before the March election. She, Sonko and former Embakasi MP vigorously campaigned for Uhuru’s TNA.
Early last month, Shebesh was engaged in yet another altercation during which she alleges she was slapped by Nairobi governor Evans Kidero who accuses her of grabbing him in the groin.
–Â the-star.co.ke
