Ruto’s Western charm offensive

President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto at last week’s prayer meeting in Busia County. (Photo: Standard)

By OSCAR OBONYO

Busia, Kenya: The choice of Busia County by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto as a prayer meeting venue could not have been more strategic, The Standard On Sunday has established.

Regarded as “the most Orange” county in Western Kenya, with reference to the overwhelming support the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and its party leader, former Premier Raila Odinga, enjoy in the county, the choice of Busia to celebrate their first anniversary in office last weekend is indeed a loaded political statement.

What makes the whole drama curious is that the local political leadership and residents might have been ambushed into “praying for and blessing” the Jubilee Coalition. The event in Nambale Constituency was destined for a harambee in aid of Madende, a local Catholic Church, and the President was in fact not even on the guest list. Ruto was the designated Chief Guest.

But in a sudden twist of events, the DP gave the President “a through-pass” and he landed in the county along the Kenya-Uganda border to preside over a significant occasion marking Jubilee’s anniversary in office. The harambee suddenly became a thanks-giving prayer meeting. In fact, the Nambale MP, John Bunyasi, concedes the funds drive did not even take place “as those who came with cash were asked to hand over their contributions thereafter”.

Charm offensive

And with the harambee shelved and Ruto taking the backseat, President Kenyatta became the chief guest of a post prayer service political forum. Local leaders, led by ODM-allied Senator Amos Wako, were accordingly compelled to sit through the session as the Jubilee leaders went on a charm offensive.

Bunyasi is nonetheless happy to have played host to the President and his deputy during the first in a series of Jubilee’s anniversary celebrations.

He says: “Partly because I am a member of UDF (United Democratic Forum), which has a post-poll deal with Jubilee, I must have naturally provided safer political ground for the two (Kenyatta and Ruto) to feel at home.”

But Bunyasi’s party leader, Musalia Mudavadi, was curiously absent from the Busia function. The former Deputy Prime Minister, who has accompanied the President during his previous tours to the region, has for long been regarded as the political kingpin in the wider Luhya nation.

However, following his poor showing in the last presidential elections, Mudavadi’s political fortunes have significantly plummeted in the region. In fact, with Mudavadi, a one-time Vice President, and former Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa politically neutralised within Jubilee, where they are partners, the political target of the Uhuru-Ruto duo is now Raila.

A couple of weeks to the presidential elections, Uhuru appeared to pull out of the race in favour of Mudavadi in a secret pre-poll deal, only for Uhuru’s supporters to compel him to elbow Mudavadi aside. The Uhuru-Ruto duo allegedly also struck a deal with Wamalwa to support their cause by teaming up with Mudavadi to deny the CORD leadership under Raila and Bungoma Senator, Moses Wetangula, the bloc Luhya vote.

As well as Raila-Wetangula, the Mudavadi-Wamalwa pair lost out to Uhuru-Ruto. And despite teaming up Uhuru-Ruto in Jubilee in a post-poll pact, Mudavadi and Wamalwa have not been rewarded with plum government jobs as highly anticipated by their supporters. Some, like Vihiga Senator George Khaniri, have openly told the duo to decamp and instead work with Raila.

Raila factor

The former PM still holds sway in the region and there cannot be a more prudent strategy of attacking his political stranglehold in the region than first targeting his strongest base in Busia. Besides Wako and Bunyasi, the county is also home to two of ODM’s leading politicians, Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba and Dr Paul Otuoma (Funyula), who were candidates for the posts of Secretary General and Chairman, in the recent Orange party’s botched polls.

Owing to his unexpected political harvest in Busia, where his URP bagged two parliamentary seats, Ruto leads Jubilee’s onslaught in the county. Following the Orange party’s chaotic and flawed party primaries of 2013, popular party supporters, including Arthur Odera and Mary Emasse, decamped to URP at the eleventh hour and got elected.

Incidentally, the two are from Teso – a non-Luhya community in the county. The DP has moved fast to place the community under his wings and has toured Teso twice, including on June 29 last year, during the homecomings for Odera and Emasse. And The Standard On Sunday has also established that last January 6, Ruto again played host to a delegation from Teso at his home.

Political leaders from the county further point to skewed appointments to government positions in favour of the Teso.

One such instance, and so far the only high profile appointment by Jubilee, is of Patrick Omutia, as Sports, Arts and Culture Principal Secretary.

While noting that the DP has every right to reward those who voted for his party candidates in the last elections, Wako advises Ruto to be alive to the delicate cosmopolitan nature of Busia.

Making overtures

Terming the DP’s political activities as divisive and “very dangerous to our people”, Otuoma calls upon the DP to live up to the expectations of the people as their national leader, “to unite our people rather than create divisions among us”. “As a politician aspiring to be a national leader, at the helm of ODM, I am of course opposed to political zoning. But much as we welcome our Jubilee brothers to sell their policies to residents of Western Kenya, they must not play divisive tactics to their political advantage,” reacts Otuoma.

The MP says the people of Busia have strived to overcome past inter-tribal hostilities, including working on a guided democracy where under unwritten negotiations it was agreed the Teso community be assigned the slot of County Governor. But for the forays by the DP, where some leaders claim he deliberately isolates some communities, could open old wounds.

Constituency boundaries between the Bakhayo and Teso along Msokoto and Lupida areas has been a volatile affair. Incidentally, the most explosive battle was religious and it revolved around the demand for the Katakwa Anglican Church diocese by the Teso.

Terming the political overtures by Ruto harmless, Teso North MP Odera maintains that the Deputy President is a national leader keen to unite the people of Busia and Western Kenya.

“Even as he does that, he must have a starting point and as URP-allied MPs, we happen to be his initial link to the region. I challenge even a single MP who claims to have invited the DP to his or her constituency and he failed to show up. Bunyasi of UDF just did so and Ruto showed up last weekend,” explains Odera. Bunyasi concurs, adding that what is of essence at the moment is for leaders in the region to unite and work with the government of the day “for the good of our people”.