MANDAGO ON THE SPOT AS REFERENDUM LOOMS

Deputy President William Ruto is facing stiff rebellion in the expansive Uasin Gishu county following a firm resolution by residents to vote overwhelmingly in support of the referendum being championed by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, your favourite Weekly Citizen can reveal.

The bold decision stems from the one and lingering fact that the national government has consistently turned a blind eye to the rising cases of human rights violations being perpetrated by Governor Jackson Mandago, who is in the forefront of evicting people including smallscale traders.

Investigations on the ground indicate that Ruto who has been raiding Raila’s strongholds vigorously to counter  the plebiscite, risks facing a rude shock of the year, as 80pc of people in the county resolve to support the exercise should it be held in the country.

It is public knowledge that the deputy president basks under the glory of Uasin Gishu being predominantly pro-government.

Ruto believes that the local people will always support the national government in as much the same way as they did during the last general elections.

However, the results could prove him together with the national government wrong this time round if the firm resolution adopted by disenfranchised residents to side with Raila, and support the referendum solidly, are anything to go by.

Talking to Weekly Citizen at an Eldoret hotel, hordes of exasperated residents asked what rational there was in Ruto stalking other counties in a chorus of condemnation of the referendum when his home turf was on fire.

They accused Ruto and the national government of failing to protect them against “Mandagos obnoxious jaws”.

They also charged that the national government was oblivious to the fact that they were suffering, and was sitting on the fence, as Mandago continued treating them like second-class citizens with impunity, and evicting small-scale traders from the county just because they do not belong to his tribe.

They also complained that Governor Mandago had issued eviction notices to thousands of residents in residential estates in Eldoret town.

Irate residents are wondering why Ruto has not done anything to stem vices being orchestrated against them by the beleaguered governor.

They protest that they voted overwhelmingly for Mandago during the last general elections, unaware that “he was a green snake in the green grass” of the Betrayal in the city.

Aggrieved residents reiterated that they would kick Mandago out in 2017, and that he would not get any single vote from them.

They asserted that there was no way they could support the referendum when Mandago’s county government was constantly harassing them, and persistently referring to them as people from other counties “who do not belong to Uasin Gishu”.

They averred that Mandago had destroyed businesses of smallscale traders in the name of foreign investors whom he was seeking to invest in the Uasin Gishu county.

“If Governor Mandago is serious in his actions, let him also woo these foreign investors to support the referendum exercise!” the residents thundered.

Affected residents said they saw no point in Ruto leading his brigade against the voting method in other areas, before squarely addressing ills being perpetrated against them by Mandago in the volatile Uasin Gishu region.

The residents felt that ex-premier Raila Odinga was fighting for their rights in his unwavering crusade for a referendum, which the national government has dismissed as unnecessary and a burden to taxpayers.

Incidentally, Mandago, has sided with Ruto and the national government in opposing the referendum.

A long drawnout war over the status quo in the Uasin Gishu county and the controversial referendum looks unstoppable, with the disenchanted residents on one hand, Mandago on the other and Ruto at the backyard.