Barchok, Ruto set stage titanic battle in Bomet

Deputy President William Ruto at Bomet Green stadium with CCM leader Isaac Ruto and Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok during a rally to drum up support for his Presidential bid. [Gilbert Kimutai, Standard]

A showdown is looming in Bomet County between governor Hillary Barchok and Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) Party leader Isaac Ruto ahead of the August 9 polls.

Dr Barchok, who inherited the seat from the late governor Joyce Laboso will seek re-election on the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) associated with Deputy President William Ruto. Mr Ruto, the inaugural governor who lost the seat to the late Dr Laboso in the 2017 polls, will use his party to try to make a political comeback.

The former governor has pledged to support the DP’s bid for the presidency in the August 9 presidential elections, but has been reluctant to fold his party and join UDA. In the 2017 governorship race, Laboso was declared the winner with 176,545 votes against Isaac Ruto 86,452 votes.

This was after Ruto and his CCM party decided to join the defunct National Super Alliance (NASA), giving Jubilee Party a wide berth, something that cost him the seat. While Barchok has largely been a scholar and was plucked from lecture halls by Laboso to be her running mate, the former governor is a veteran politician with a gift of the garb.

Barchok inherited the seat after Laboso’s death on July 29, 2019, after a long battle with cancer. Ruto was swept away in the 2017 governorship contest by the Jubilee euphoria and his return to claim his seat has set the stage for a titanic clash.

The political showdown, which played out in the 2017 General Election between Laboso and Ruto, will be replicated in the upcoming elections. The race has excited political pundits in the region who have branded it “a fight for survival”.

“Ruto is seeking to make a comeback from the political cold while Barchok is fighting to survive longer in the political scene,” says Raymond Langat, a political commentator in the county.

Langat says the decision by Ruto to hold onto CCM will put him in a collision course with the Deputy President  and his supporters.

“Deputy President is banking on Bomet as his backyard and the presence of CCM will make him very uncomfortable and will probably lead to a collision sparking, a battle similar to what was witnessed in 2017,” Langat observes.

Langat says the incident witnessed during the recent tour by DP in the county last month where CCM and UDA supporters engaged in shouting matches was a pointer to the looming battle.

“As much as the DP is trying to avoid a fight that may split his backyard, it is inevitable since CCM will field candidates against those of UDA and that is where the collision will be witnessed first-hand,” Langat observes.

Already Ruto and Barchok have gone head-to-head as they hunt for votes across the county. Barchok accuses the former governor of being a perpetrator of political intolerance and urges locals not to vote for him.

“We have enjoyed relative peace while Ruto was out in the political cold and voting him back will see the return of violence and hooliganism,” says Barchok while on a meet-the-people tour in Longisa Ward.

He has also dismissed Ruto saying he was not development-conscious and has nothing to show for the five years he was in office.

“We can point at a good number of ECDE centres and good roads and better services in general as our scorecard but for Ruto, he has nothing to show at all,” he says.

Heckled

Barchok claims Ruto is a political antagonist who is only out to create a tug of war.

“We know his intention and we saw it during the tour by DP where some leaders were heckled in an attempt to get attention so that UDA and CCM can negotiate a political deal,” he adds. He accuses Ruto of not being sincere in his support for DP’s presidential bid.

“It is said that he claims to be supporting the DP while at the same time fighting him by opposing his party and fielding candidates against it. What an irony?” poses Barchok.

The governor insists he will beat Ruto come August 9, saying Bomet is a UDA zone and voters have already taken a stand to support Dr Ruto’s presidential bid.

But Barchok will have to fight for the UDA ticket with the likes of Petroleum Cabinet Administrative Secretary John Mosonik.

However, Ruto exudes confidence that he will carry the day and dismisses claims that his support for the DP’s presidential bid was not genuine.

“The deputy president is rooting for similar ideologies we have been pushing for as a party (CCM) and we do not need other reasons so that we can show our support,” he declares.

Ruto accuses Barchok of running down the county, saying he wants to come back and streamline things at the county.

He pledges to ensure youth in the county have gainful employment saying currently there is an employment crisis in the county.

 Analysts say the return of Ruto to the DP’s camp has complicated the political arithmetic in the region and put Barchok in a tight corner. According to Gitile Naituli, the professor of leadership and management, Barchok has moved to quell the rising tension and a possible split in UDA following the entrance of Ruto.

“Dr Barchok is well aware of the threat posed by Ruto joining the Hustlers’ movement. He has been enjoying unrivalled support in most parts of the county being the only hopeful among the UDA candidates in the region,” observes Prof Naituli.

Naituli observes that the CCM party leader was under immense pressure from his supporters who feel he has been left out by the train to join hands with the DP.

He says the desire for the Kalenjin community to be under one political umbrella under the leadership of the DP made him (Ruto) join the bandwagon.

But, the coming in of Ruto, according to the scholar, has heralded a new political discussion in Bomet, something that has caused jittery among the supporters of Barchok and which has taken him back to the drawing board.

Ruto’s new move has now jolted the support for Mosonik, who is seen as an equalizer to the two having set his eyes on the seat.

Mosonik has already tendered his resignation from the government and declared his intentions to vie for governorship. And with his entry, the contest will shape up to be a battle of the three political titans.