Showdown looms as “Team Embrace” heads to Duale’s backyard on Saturday

GARISSA—A showdown is looming in Garissa Town over the weekend as “Team Embrace” plans to hold political rally in Duale’s backyard.

According to sources privy to the event, the group of women legislators will be hosted by the county governor, Ali Korane. The Embrace team approached the county chief two months ago at the height of his bitter fall-out with Garissa Township MP, Aden Duale. It’s said that he accepted to entertain the team then as a means to “deconstruct Duale’s since he poised himself as the gateway to Garissa County.”

However, the Governor has since changed tact and want the group to come on the weekend in a bid to prove that he has indeed dumped Ruto camp for the pro-handshake movement led by Raila and section of Jubilee leaders against Ruto presidential ambitions.

Protocol officers from Korane office are working hand-in-hand with a Team Embrace representatives who are in Garissa to put final touches on the venue ahead of the Saturday event.

The women legislators under the umbrella initiative ‘Team Embrace Kenya’, is an outfit geared towards healing “the rift in Kenya’s political landscape,” but their critics say it’s hell-bent on derailing the Deputy President, William Ruto as evident in their previous rhetorics. 

A rival all-woman outfit popularly known as “Inua Mama” is similarly criss-crossing the country, preaching Ruto’s gospel while dismissing the handshake and calls for referendum. 

A group of activists and youth are seeking to hold a parallel event in the town to denounce the rally, saying it comes at a time when the county is facing severe drought.

“The Governor is planning to spend millions in a political rally. That can be committed to drought relief programs,” Mahdi a youth activist in Garissa Town Kulan Post.

It’s not clear whether the governor will attend the Garissa rally on Saturday, but if he goes ahead and appears alongside the female legislators and the speakers take a jibe at Duale, it will provide a fodder for a renewed political fall-out between the Garissa leaders less than a month after their “handshake.”