Ruto's new headache as key support base turns hostile

Whenever Deputy President William Ruto wants to tease former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, he would refer to him as yule jamaa wa vitendawili. The point being that Mr Odinga is all talk and no action.

As the saying goes, what goes around comes around. For his many unfulfilled promises, opponents of the Jubilee candidate in the Kericho by-election have coined a name for the DP.

They call him yule jamaa wa tumetenga. The point is that whenever the DP addresses a gathering, he is fond of saying the government has set aside funds for various projects.

But the rebellion against Mr Ruto in the South Rift runs deeper than name tags. The Deputy President is a man in trouble at home.

On Wednesday, the DP flew into a political storm in Kericho where he experienced first-hand the rebellion that has been growing in the region.

In 2002, Ruto had easy time mobilising the Rift Valley to vote for Kanu. He easily sold the ODM agenda in the same region in 2007. And in 2013, he hit the peak of his political popularity when he locked down the region for Jubilee. But today, a section of the Kipsigis community is showing open defiance to the man they have previously embraced as their leading light. The community constitutes the single largest voting bloc of the Kalenjin. They feel short-changed by the Jubilee administration. And they are vocal about what they feel.

“Your Excellency, we have to be honest with each other. You bandy names from this region that have benefited from the Jubilee Government. It is however sad to note that they are all from one family. Should we continue priding ourselves that we are in government or a family is in government?” a furious Paul Chirchir told the DP.

Recent key appointments in government in the region include that of Charles Keter (Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum), Betty Maina (PS East African Integration), Julius Korir (Industrialisation Secretary), John Kipngetich Mosonik (Infrastructure PS) and 13 directors and chief executive officers of state corporations.

The protest that started as personal differences between the DP and Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto has grown into a full-blown rebellion that has sucked in nine MPs, a Senator and officials of the independence party Kanu.

Governor Ruto, the fiercest critic of the DP, has teamed up with Kanu Chairman Gideon Moi, Secretary General Nick Salat and nine Jubilee-allied MPs in a political game plan to water down the DP’s influence in the region. The idea is to ensure the DP “has little to bring to the table” from the region in 2017.

But exactly why is the South Rift revolting against the DP?

Empty promises

Residents who spoke to The Standard on Sunday pointed to three key points that have angered them. The issues include unfulfilled promises, nepotism and favouritism in employment and unresponsive local leaders who are Ruto’s key allies.

The anger is so deep that during a meeting with the DP on Wednesday at Tea Research Foundation Centre, speakers told him to his face that they will register a protest vote in the Kericho senatorial by-election.

And on Saturday, two prominent Jubilee supporters Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi and former Kipkelion legislator Magerer Langat announced that they would support the Kanu candidate Paul Sang in the Kericho senate seat by-elections.

Delays in implementing key development projects promised during the Jubilee campaigns have also caused a rift between the DP and area voters.

At the Wednesday meeting, Ruto was taken to task to explain why the projects he pledged in the run-up to the last General Election and thereafter have not been implemented.

“We were promised that more than 120 kilometres of roads in Kericho and neighbouring counties will be tarmacked but nothing has been done,” said Chirchir.

Other projects Jubilee promised residents of the South Rift include the construction of a referral hospital in Londiani, a public university in Bomet County, construction of a technical institute and the rehabilitation of roads.

According to political analysts, disgruntled leaders, especially from the United Republican Party (URP) have often expressed dissatisfaction in the manner the DP has been handling some community leaders. “The DP finds himself isolated because of the way he has been handling other Kalenjin leaders,” says Prof Philip Chebunet, a political science lecturer at the University of Eldoret.

“Governor Ruto and some MPs have been accusing the DP of undermining leaders who seem not to toe the line. The governor has once differed openly with the DP in public. That is something that ought not to happen,” says Chebunet.

Kuresoi South MP Zakayo Cheruiyot, one of the URP leaders who fell out with the DP over the intended dissolution of the party, accuses Ruto of using some MPs to insult other leaders.

“Some of my colleagues have become sycophants and have been going round insulting other elected leaders and publicly stating that they have your blessings to do so,” the MP told Mr Ruto.

Cheruiyot, a once powerful Internal Security PS in the Kanu Government, says the attitude of the DP towards some elected leaders has caused what started as a disappointment to grow into a rebellion.

“The DP has let what started as a disappointment to grow into a rebellion. He let one leader to be in charge of the entire region instead of bringing all of us together,” Cheruiyot says. That he allowed leaders from outside the region to campaign for the JAP candidate in the just-concluded Nyangores ward by-election in Bomet also did not go down well with locals.

According to Prof Chebunet, if Jubilee continues to rely on leaders like Ferdinand Waititu, Rachel Shebesh and Moses Kuria to campaign for the JAP candidate in Kericho, it will lose the seat.

“That strategy did not work in Nyangores where Peoples’ Patriotic Party of Kenya candidate trounced the Jubilee man. If they use the same strategy in Kericho, they are bound to lose the seat,” said Chebunet.

In response to the accusations, the DP apologised and sought to play down the claims. He said appointments in government are done on merit.

“I ask for your forgiveness if the appointments favoured one family. I know the government picked the most qualified people with proven track records to head different departments. If one or two are related to someone, then that was an oversight,” he said. Ruto said the region benefited greatly from government appointments, saying more than 20 appointees were from Kericho, Bomet and Narok counties.

But he was at pains to explain why the government had not begun work on projects it had pledged to commission.

“I was the one who personally proposed and promised to implement some of those projects,” Ruto told the leaders at the meeting.

The DP dismissed claims that he had focused all his energies and time on the North Rift region, saying as a national leader, he had his priorities right and would treat everyone equally.

“There are people trying to create stories that the North Rift region has more development projects than the South, that I have focused more on the north. That is not true,” said the DP.

Ruto announced the commencement of major road projects in the region where the government plans to spend Sh15 billion. Plans, he said, are also underway for the construction of the Sh200 million Kapkatet Stadium.

He also revealed that 35 cooling plants worth Sh380 million would soon be delivered in the country though a Kenya-Poland partnership. The DP assured residents in the region that the government was committed to ensuring that the region has a modern referral hospital and that Sh100 million had already been allocated for the project.

He further said a public university would be constructed in Bomet County and that the government had already worked on the building plans and an allocation of Sh100 million has been set aside for the project.

“The government has also budgeted for a technical institution in Kericho. Sh50 million will be used for the construction of the facility and another Sh50 million will be used for equipping the institution once completed,” he said.

Disgruntled leaders

But Chebunet says the DP needs to change his strategy. “He needs to change his modus operandi. Leadership should be policy-based. He should avoid political brokers and deal directly with the people. The brokers have tainted his image.”

The political science professor believes the DP should reach out to the disgruntled leaders and try to re-organise his political base ahead of the 2017 polls.

The rebellion against the Jubilee government has also spread over to the neighbouring Narok County where six legislators have expressed displeasure over the sacking of their kinsmen from government in last year’s reorganisation of government ministries and departments. Leaders who have fallen out with Jubilee from Narok are Ken Kiloku (Narok East), Patrick Ntutu (Narok West) and Senator Stephen ole Ntutu.

Jonathan Rono, a political activist from Bomet County, says the unfolding events in the South Rift region indicate that voters may reconsider their support for Jubilee, with Kanu being the sole beneficiary.

As the Kericho by-election draws closer, top Kanu leaders have been making trips to Bomet and Kericho, a clear indication that the party is banking on votes from the region in the forthcoming elections.

Kanu has teamed up with Mashinani Development Party of Kenya associated with Governor Ruto to campaign for Paul Sang in the Kericho by-election.

Governor Ruto has also managed to rally officials of the Kenya National Union of Teacher (Knut) behind him in a bid to wrestle the region from the grip of the DP.

The union’s Secretary General Wilson Sossion had made it clear that teachers have a bone to pick with the Jubilee government after it failed to implement a salary award.