Raila to camp in Ruto turf as MPs sell Uhuru deal

The battle for the Rift Valley vote intensifies from Friday with Prime Minister Raila Odinga camping in Nandi and Eldoret.

But Mr Odinga will not have a monopoly of the vote hunt in the Rift Valley as MPs allied to Eldoret North MP William Ruto will also be mobilising support for their candidate in the same region.

In what is likely to shape political events in coming weeks, MPs allied to Mr Ruto will be marketing their alliance with Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s The National Alliance (TNA).

At the same time, some supporters of Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, led by Kangundo MP Johnstone Muthama, will visit Nyanza to show their growing ties with Mr Odinga.

Mr Muthama said in an interview that nothing will stop his party from working with the Prime Minister. On Thursday, Mr Muthama told the Nation that he had been invited to a rally in Kisumu by ODM.

“Yes it is true I have been invited and I have accepted the invitation, I will represent the Wiper Movement party at that meeting,” he said. Mr Muthama accused some members of the G-7 grouping of behaving as if the leadership of the country belonged to a select few.

“I have been through alliances before and some of them are punctuated with malice, selfishness and betrayal. Many leaders who fell prey to such manipulations have been left cursing and we know them,” he said.

Mr Muthama said his working with ODM had the blessings of top Wiper Party leaders. Sources said Mr Muthama met with the VP on Thursday. Details of the meeting were however scanty.

Mr Muthama was adamant that the alliance between Mr Musyoka and Mr Odinga  was real despite denials by the Wiper Democratic Movement National Executive Committee (NEC) that the VP was not ready to talk to the PM.

“There is no turning back on this (Odinga-Musyoka alliance). I will have a major rally in Kisumu to cement the alliance and Mutula Kilonzo, who is our secretary general, is aware of this,” said a defiant Mr Muthama.  

Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula also confirmed that he was in talks with ODM.

“As Ford Kenya we are in agreement that it is important to build alliances with other parties and it is true that we have talked to ODM and others. We believe that at the right time we will craft an agreement that will bring our country together,” he said.

Mr Wetang’ula has been in talks with United Democratic Forum (UDF) presidential hopeful Musalia Mudavadi and Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo towards agreeing on a single presidential candidate from the region.

There were reports that Mr Ruto had also held lengthy alliance talks with Mr Mudavadi on Wednesday night but the Nation could not independently verify the information.  

MPs allied to Mr Ruto meanwhile maintained that their rallies are intended to lay the ground for a pre-election coalition before the December 4 deadline for parties to deposit any such agreement with the Registrar of Political Parties.

According to the programme, the MPs allied to Mr Ruto will be in Busia town for a public rally before heading to South Rift on Saturday for rallies in Bomet and Kericho counties.

On Sunday, the MPs will be in Nandi where they will hold three public rallies to drum up support for the Ruto-Kenyatta alliance.

“We have decided to go down to the people and explain to them why we have settled on a Uhuru-Ruto alliance,” said Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny.

“We will be talking about the cases at the ICC because they have brought Ruto and Uhuru together and it is only by them forming a government that they can contain ICC,” he said.

Mr Kutuny had appeared on Kass FM earlier in the day urging listeners to support an alliance between the two presidential aspirants.

“We explained to them that President Kibaki has been very kind to us over the last five years. We told them that when Raila sacked Ruto, President Kibaki reinstated him.

"When he evicted our people from the Mau forest, Kibaki said they must be resettled and compensated but Land minister James Orengo who is Raila’s ally has failed to resettle them,” said the Cherangany MP.

The rallies will severely test an equally aggressive campaign by Mr Odinga to resolve his political differences with Mr Ruto and regain the support of the Kalenjin community which voted overwhelmingly for him in the 2007 election.

Mr Odinga recently held talks with Mr Ruto at the residence of Mr Joshua Kulei, a former aide of retired President Daniel Moi where a possible political deal was discussed.

Early this week, Mr Odinga met elders from the Kalenjin community where he asked for forgiveness for letting them down.

A statement from the PM’s office said Mr Odinga will be in Nandi on Friday for the burial of the late paramount chief of the Talai community. He will return to Eldoret town on Monday for a meeting with elders and grassroots leaders drawn from 21 constituencies in the North Rift.

A senior ODM minister confirmed that Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka had reached out to each other.

“They have been in contact through phone calls and occasional meetings but there is nothing concrete yet. But there is something is in the offing, Muthama is not on his own,” said the minister who did not want to be named.

Nominated MP Mohammed Affey defended Mr Muthama saying he has a right to his own opinion.

“Muthama was simply expressing his opinion by encouraging Kalonzo to talk to Raila but that does not mean that the two are talking. He is an active member of Wiper and an ardent supporter of the VP,” said Mr Affey.

Stories by Peter Leftie, Isaac Ongiri, Njeri Rugene and Bob Odalo