Kalenjin elders call on Ruto to stop treating Moi like his agemate

Kalenjin elders have appealed to DP William Ruto and other elected leaders in Rift Valley to desist forthwith from using the name of the retired president Daniel arap Moi in a disparaging manner for their own selfish end.
“Moi the grand old man of Kenya politics should be left alone to enjoy his retirement peacefully. Let nobody use his name for the purpose of gaining politics mileage over his opponent,”  the elders asserted.
“The name of Moi is sacred and anyone misusing it stands to be cursed,” said Kipsigis veteran politician William Kettienya.
Kettienya dismissed a group of Kalenjin elders calling themselves Kalenjin Miyot Council of Elders as selfseekers.
There has never been any election for such an organisation in the entire Kalenjin community.
Kettienya advised DP Ruto to desist from the politics of names-calling and political rhetoric, citing recent reports which appeared in the press that the DP had named Bomet and Kericho governors, Baringo senator Gideon Moi and  Joshua Kuttuny as among those who would wish to see him jailed over the criminal case against him at the ICC.
“This is a very unfortunate statement in Kalenjin tradition and norm as nobody is allowed to wish his neighbour a bad omen.  All those people named by Ruto, he said,  were cleanhearted people who have all along been wishing the  DP comes out of the ICC clean so that he could continue with the task of building the nation.
Kettienya said both Uhuru Kenyatta and DP Ruto are known to have been the political disciples of Moi, but while Uhuru is striving hard to unite his Kikuyu community, the DP is busy pursuing divisive politics in the Rift Valley.
“They should emulate their mentor Moi and preach his gospel of love, peace and unity among their communities. Ruto must abandon his dreams of becoming the overall Kalenjin leaderlike Moi who held the community together for decades. He can only achieve this if he stops utterances and politics of name name-calling. He  said the DP had also claimed Cord leader Raila Odinga  fought Mwai Kibaki  while in  the coalition government.
Kettienya condemned a group of Kericho MCAs who last week called on Kericho governor Paul Chepkwony to resign his position for declaring support fort governor  Isaac Ruto. He termed the group which was led by the majority leader Rono as a bunch of political greenhorns.
 He said his investigations have revealed that only seven MCAs took part in Rono’s meeting and not 30 as claimed.
“Let those sycophants tell their boss DP Ruto to respect his fellow leaders, particularly the elected MPs and MCAs in Kericho and Bomet counties. He should also stop invoking Mzee Moi’s name in his political wars. That is a sacred name, which must not be used in petty political wrangling,” he said.
A number of Kericho leaders  regretted that the ongoing political differences between the two Rutos have become the genesis of political hooliganism in the two regions, particularly in Bomet. The elders averred that the elected MPs have stopped to be honourable legislators and were now behaving like political hirelings even in public gatherings.
One politician who requested for anonymity said Kipsigis people will soon convene a meeting at Kapkatet to chart the way forward.
He also advised those who had started campaigns for Kericho governorship to wait until the time comes, adding that premature campaigns will retard development.