Supremacy battle between Deputy President William Ruto
and Bomet governor Isaac Rutto has now taken a new twist with fresh revelations
that the URP wing of the Jubilee coalition is secretly plotting to impeach the
rebel governor.
Rutto is now pointing an accusing finger at the DP for
being behind the move to impeach him and to finally expel him from URP. Last
week, drama unfolded at Wilson Airport when Rutto confronted the DP and
demanded to be told why he was lobbying the Bomet county MCAs to impeach him over
his crusade for the proposed referendum.
“He has been lobbying members of the county assembly
to initiate impeachment proceedings against me. I confronted him when I met him
at Wilson Airport the other day. I asked him, ‘why are you doing this?’ and he
just walked away,” said Rutto.
Rutto has stated that he will not waiver in his
resolve to press for stronger devolution structure and allocation of more money
to the county governments through a referendum.
Last week, eight nominated MCAs from Bomet county who
supports the referendum were summoned to a meeting in Nairobi by the DP where
they were down dressed and asked to abandon the referendum calls. Ruto has
dared URP to expel him from the party.
Analysts now say that Rutto is aware that he enjoys constitutional
protection and that even expulsion from the party cannot make him lose his
gubernatorial seat but only through impeachment by the county assembly.
Recently, supporters of the DP and Rutto clashed over
calls for a referendum at a function attended by the two. The rival camps
turned the church fundraiser at Marinyin Catholic Church in Bomet Central into
a shouting match just after Kericho Senator Charles Keter took to the stage.
Keter and four other senators had led 12 MPs in
dismissing calls for a referendum by the Council of Governors headed by Rutto.
At one point, the visibly angry governor told off security officers who were
trying to push his supporters. He threatened that the meeting would abort if
the officers continued roughing up his backers.
Two weeks ago, DP Ruto took with him a good number of
Rift Valley MPs, governors and senators allied URP in Jubilee coalition to
Bomet county on a mission which was seen and viewed by the local pundits and
observers alike as “damage control mission”.
It is emerging, URP strategist are concerned with the
Kipsigis factor in its fold and fear is the community rebellion led by a good
number of politician is bound to have negative impact in 2017. With the DP were
Senator Kindiki Kithure, Adan Duale, the majority leader in parliament, and
other party politicians.
The visit to the Marinyin Catholic Church in Bomet
West constituency was so important to the deputy president. The visit came on
the heels of a temporary truce between the Ruto and his namesake who is the
governor of Bomet and also a member of the Jubilee alliance.
The truce between the two Rutos had come following the
recent reinstatement of the Kericho governor Paul Chepkwony by the senate
after his brief impeachment by the Kericho Assembly MCAs, a move was
viewed as have been instigated by the deputy president and his political
surrogates in the region allegedly led by the Kericho senator Charles Keter.
The URP leader’s mission in the heart of Kipsigis
land, however, flopped when his front man, Keter, whose popularity in the
region appeared to have waned drastically were greeted with heckling and booing
forcing the Catholic priest, Fr Donald Kimutai’s intervention after sensing
that the high profile funds drive was likely to be marred by fracas and violent
confrontations between supporters of the two Rutos.
Indeed, the mission proved to be an act of
miscalculation on the part of DP Ruto.
During the abortive attempt to remove Kericho governor
from his office on claims by MCAs who were alleged to have been bribed by
agents and political hirelings of a senior Jubilee politician from the North
Rift, the controversial move against the Kericho governor only served to unite
members of the Kipsigis, a sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjin ethnic groups. It was
seen as a ploy to marginalise the most populous community by their cousins from
the North the same way it happened during the 24 years reign of the retired
President Daniel Moi.
After Governor Chepkwony was reinstated by the Senate,
Ruto immediately embarked on public relations tour of Kericho and Bomet, and at
one time even reached the two governors to iron out their differences.
These missions worked well in favour of the DP Ruto.
But the latest incident has worsened the situation and invigorated the feeling
and attitudes of the residents of the region who have since joined the two
governors in their support for the two impending referendum campaigns one led
by Cord leader Raila Odinga and the other one for Pesa Mashinani led by
Rutto of Bomet.
The other issue which has inflicted heavy damage
to the DP Ruto in the South Rift is his change of heart and latest
stand on the Mau Forest eviction of illegal squatters which is likely to hurt
the DP mostly because many people still remember how he fought the former PM
Raila tooth and nail over the Mau issue. This is now portraying him as
someone with no principles and firm stand. Majority of the illegal settlers in
the Mau Forest are people most who originated from Bomet county.
In the interest of Ruto, his handlers
should advise him to limit his political utterances and weigh his words to
avoid causing confusion among his supporters and backers in Kalenjin region and
in other parts of Kenya. Ruto’s public pronouncements are full of
contradictions, hence mounting opposition to his leadership.
The recent confrontation with the two Kipsigis
governors appears to favour the governors and the sooner Ruto harmonises his
working relations with the elected leaders in the South Rift and avoid the use
of hirelings to harass them, the better.
Ruto’s overrelying on
Senator Keter as his most trusted pointman is a matter of conjuncture. Keter
seemed to have stepped on the toes of many elected leaders in Kipsigis land as
his most trusted pointman in the South Rift region is matter of concern. But
the man who stands to gain on the political wrangling between the DP Ruto and
the two governors is the Kanu national chairman Gideon Moi, who many
people in the area have credited his stand on the governor Chepkwony’s aborted
impeachment scheme.
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