Trouble in paradise? Coast Ruto allies missing in action

On his last official visit to the Coast on Mashujaa Day, Deputy President William Ruto cut a forlorn figure, received and escorted to the presidential dais in Mombasa by Nyali MP Mohamed Ali.

Not even his vocal supporter, Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa, who had been freed from police detention in the wake of the violent Ganda Ward by-election, rushed to receive the DP. A month earlier, Ruto had visited Malindi to coordinate campaigns for the Jubilee candidate in the by-election. that day he was received by a district officer only.

Penetrate Kilifi

It would later emerge that Ruto was actually supporting independent candidate Abdulrahman Omar who was also a protégé of Jumwa’s.

The Ganda by-election exposed the wide political divisions in Kilifi County and the flight of Ruto’s allies to the Orange party.

Now, MPs Owen Baya (Kilifi North), Michael Kingi (Magarini), Gertrude Mbeyu (Kilifi Woman Rep) and Governor Amason Kingi seem to have left Ruto’s camp.

Some analysts say besides harsh disciplinary action meted out to Jumwa and Msambweni MP Suleiman Dori earlier this year by ODM, Jumwa’s own brand of politics, local grassroots resistance to the DP as well as national politics is behind the reluctance by Coast politicians to associate with Ruto any longer.

“Jumwa’s close ties to Ruto and the DP’s reliance on her to penetrate Kilifi is central to the collapse of  Ruto’s network in this region,” says Mohamed Hassan, a local political analyst.

Hassan believes local leaders resent Jumwa’s “overbearing” character and her “monopoly” of the DP, adding that if Ruto wants to win Coast he should rethink his dependence on the Malindi MP.

He also believes that so far the DP appears to have walked into a minefield of competing interests and personality clashes and taken sides to the chagrin of most local leaders that had drawn close to him.

Baya has declared interest in the Kilifi governor’s seat, while Kingi who was once close to the DP is now said to be gravitating towards former Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung’aro of Jubilee.

Mung’aro is now closer to ODM and campaigned for the party’s candidate in the Ganda by election. Jumwa has also escalated her wars with Kingi and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, blaming them for her recent arrest in the wake of the Ganda violence.

She also accused Joho of lacking “table manners” in the wake of the Raila-Uhuru truce.

She said Joho used to be a champion of Coast interests but after the handshake, he joined the high table and “no longer champions our interests. He must have table manners”.

Until mid this year, most ODM/NASA legislators in Taita Taveta, Kilifi, Kwale, Tana River, Lamu and Mombasa rebelled against their parties and rallied behind Ruto.

Today, save for Jumwa and Kaloleni’s Paul Katana, most Coast MPs avoid Ruto like the plague. Mombasa MPs Ali Mbogo and Badi Twalib no longer attend the DP’s rallies.

Equally missing from the DP’s recent Coast tours has been Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya, who has been Ruto’s close ally. An aide to Mvurya told journalists that the governor has taken a deliberate effort to avoid the controversy that has engulfed the DP at the national level. He does not want to be identified with either of the Jubilee factions.

“But what I know for sure is that there is no bad blood between the governor and the deputy president or the president,” said the aide, adding that the governor dispatched his deputy Fatuma Achani to an Inua Mama rally in Kwale.

“I do not know for sure why he did not attend the DP’s functions. Was he invited? I have no idea.”