ODM rebels? We will support Ruto fully, Aisha and Dori vow

DP WIlliam Ruto and Malindi Mp Aisha Jumwa are taken through the design of the Baricho bridge and approach roads in Kilif county when he launched their construction.[Charles Kimani, DPPS]

Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa and her Msambweni counterpart Suleiman Dori have said they will not appear before the ODM disciplinary committee.

The two legislators said they move around with Deputy President William Ruto in the spirit of the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Speaking in front of Ruto during a fundraiser in aid of Shomane Girls Secondary School in Malindi yesterday, the MPs said will not be cowed to stop supporting the DP.

“I have not received a letter from those people as it is being claimed and on that day I will be in Malindi attending to my people or if there will be no work I will take a holiday,” she said.

She said the era when party headquarters would intimidate members are long gone, and dared anyone to challenge her in Malindi.

Dori said he will not honour the summons and dared ODM to dislodge him.

He wondered why it was only him and Jumwa who had been summoned, yet several ODM MPs have been attending Ruto’s functions.

“I called the author of the letter and asked him why only the two of us had received letters and he told me that the ODM office had no papers to print more letters,” Dori said.

Ruto has been in Coast since Thursday, his 10th trip to the region since the handshake.

Ruto’s close ties with Dori and Aisha has unnerved his former close allies in Jubilee, who no longer attend his rallies in Coast region.

Yesterday, he urged his supporters to back the Jubilee regime for economic development, instead of playing party politics.

He said the Big Four agenda would only be achieved if all leaders, irrespective of party affiliation, religion or tribe, worked together.

Jumwa has been in trouble with her party ever since she threw her weight behind Ruto’s 2022 presidential bid.