Deputy President William Ruto has retreated to his farm in Taita-Taveta County where he practices agriculture.
Dr Ruto acquired the vast property from former MP Basil Criticos, becoming one of the largest landowners in a county where majority of residents are squatters.
The farm, which has livestock, is managed by a South African, Arie Dempers, who got in trouble with the police last year after altercation with locals.
Mr Dempers was arrested and briefly detained after the county government accused the property management of diverting a water canal to the farm.
The 1,000 acre-farm overlooks Lake Jipe that straddles along the Kenya-Tanzania Border, Vilima Viwili hills and the Pare, Ugweno and Usangi hills in Tanzania.
Ruto arrived at the farm on Sunday morning in a helicopter and went to herd livestock.
Dressed in a black pair of trousers, checked shirt, a white hat and safari boots, with a shepherd’s crook in hand, the DP was seen herding livestock on the vast farm.
Mr Dennis Itumbi posted online images of the deputy president herding livestock.
“The DP called me before he jetted in his farm. He told me he was coming to rest and inspect development projects on his farm. He has not told me that he will meet people. He has told me that he has come to have some rest,” said Mata Ward representative Chanzu Khamadi, a DP ally in the county.
The Ford-Kenya legislator said the DP “is around for some days.”
Another Ruto ally, who declined to be named, termed the visit private.
“The DP has told me that his visit is private, unless he changes to do other things,” the DP’s ally told The Standard.
Apart from rearing livestock, Ruto is constructing a 4-acre man-made lake for irrigation purposes, Khamadi said.
The farm management said the multi-billion shilling project was aimed at promoting irrigation to improve the economy of the community.
On the farm the DP rears livestock, poultry and fish.
“We have provided employment opportunities to the local community, apart from providing water and entrepreneurial farming skills to transform their lives, as part of our corporate social responsibility,” stated Dempers.
Other projects lined up in the farm include a modern primary school at Mata Ward, a bursary and scholarship programme, a police post at Cess and tarmacking of Cess-Lake Jipe road to improve fishing and tourism industries.
Dempers said Taveta was the bread basket of the coastal region, but the potential has not been fully utilised for the benefit of locals in areas of employment and poverty alleviation.
Dempers said the fact that Njoro Kubwa canal and Njoro Springs passed through the farm made it viable for the project.
“We acquired the land two years ago from Mr Criticos. We have erected an electric fence around it,” he said.
