I am not shaken by Raila’s rally, says Ruto

Agriculture minister William Ruto on Monday dismissed a highly successful rally in Mombasa by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

In brief remarks on Monday, Mr Ruto said Kenyans were wise enough to see beyond the crowds.

“People can have as many rallies as they find time for. We have seen and participated in such rallies and we know what comes out of them. The people of Kenya are wiser now,” he said.

The Prime Minister led 15 Cabinet ministers and more than 60 MPs to the rally, attended by thousands of party supporters, in what was seen as show of political might.

Mr Ruto’s allies, however, said they were not moved by big rallies, saying they do not translate to votes.

Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny, a vocal ally of Mr Ruto, said: “Even Raila organised such (huge) meetings in the last election but still lost to (President) Kibaki.”

He also claimed that Cabinet ministers Franklin Bett, Henry Kosgey and Sally Kosgei, who accompanied Mr Odinga to the Tononoka rally, had lost ground in the Rift Valley and were likely to be voted out in 2012.

“Walking around with people like Sally, Bett and Kosgey does not mean much because they will lose their seats anyway,” Mr Kutuny said.

On Monday, MPs allied to Mr Odinga said they had crafted a plan to fight dissenting Orange MPs and clip their political influence.

Part of the plan is a series of countrywide rallies and recruitment of like-minded MPs to back the PM and contain Mr Ruto and his fellow dissenters whom they see as a threat to ODM popularity.

Even though the ODM team retreated to the Coast at the weekend to find a common ground on the draft Constitution and address a rally at Tononoka, it has emerged that closed-door meetings were held to agree on a script that would be used to fight Mr Ruto and Tourism minister Najib Balala.

Bits of the strategy, the MPs said, came out during the Tononoka rally when Cabinet ministers Anyang’ Nyong’o and Fred Gumo spoke of the difference between democrats and opportunists, and former Youth for Kanu 92 officials who could not be trusted.

Said Prof Nyong’o, the ODM secretary general: “We should differentiate between democrats and opportunists. Those in YK 92 started their politics for cash.”

Mr Gumo, the Regional Development Authorities minister, also threw a salvo at the former YK92 leaders, whom he accused of contributing to increased inflation due to mass printing of currency “until (retired President Daniel arap) Moi dumped them.”

Lands minister James Orengo said the battle in ODM was between those who fought for liberation in the early 1990s and the those who were on Mr Moi’s side.

“It is such things that made Ford (pioneer multi-party political grouping) break. It’s a fight between those who wanted to liberate Kenya and those who spoiled it,” he told the rally.

The three ministers, close allies of Mr Odinga, were hinting at the decision by Mr Ruto to bring on board Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo during his rallies at the weekend when he skipped the Tononoka meeting.

YK 92 was a lobby group formed by supporters of Mr Moi in 1992 to fight off the Ford wave after Section 2A was repealed to allow multi-party politics.