Gideon leads another onslaught against DP

Baringo Senator has returned to the stumps to present himself as the alternative leader in Deputy President William Ruto’s Rift Valley political turf.

The Baringo senator has in the last few weeks staged high level political rallies in West Pokot and Narok counties where he has been labelling Mr Ruto as disrespectful and dictatorial.

The senator’s rendezvous in the region is likely to worry the DP more so because the senator is joined by the vocal and rebellious Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto.

Although the Rift Valley region voted almost to a man for President Uhuru Kenyatta and the DP, analysts now say any movement by the vocal governor’s Kipsigis sub-tribe – the largest voting bloc in the Kalenjin nation – out of the DP’s basket will injure the DP’s bargaining power in 2017 and subsequently in 2022 when he hopes to clinch the presidency.

That injury will be even more visible were it to be aided by Senator Moi, who comes from the Tugen sub-tribe and wields considerable say in the neighbouring Pokot politics.

West Pokot Senator John Lonyangapuo and Governor Simon Kachapin both won on Kanu tickets.

RECLAIMING POWER
According to University of Nairobi political scientist Adams Oloo, Mr Moi could be said to be in a mission to reclaim what his family controlled for 50 years – a kind of a Moi dynasty rebirth.

Through Gideon, the Moi dynasty is trying to retrace its place in the country’s politics.

“He is trying to be his father’s son by telling Kalenjins, look: Kanu was home, let us go back there,” Dr Oloo told the Sunday Nation.

Governor Ruto – who has said he was ready to chart a new political path – also appears to have cut out a niche for himself to shout from the roof-top of how the DP was short changed in government and why 2017 must be the time to make bolder choices.

“Governor Ruto appears to be saying, hey, we know what being in power means. That DP Ruto was given a few ribs and not the juicy parts of the bull. And the fact that he has been the one to take the TNA bull by the horns makes him very relevant in the Kalenjin political scene,” argued Dr Oloo.

The senator’s image of not playing grudge politics even when extremely provoked by DP Ruto’s camp, analysts say, has also made him admirable in the political circles.

RECANTED EVIDENCE
And now with the August 19 ICC ruling allowing use of recanted evidence in the case against the DP and journalist Joshua arap Sang’, the Kalenjin nation has been thrown into confusion and, it appears, the reigniting of the Kanu train is fashioned to re-assure the community.

“Now more than ever before, the possibility of the Deputy President not being in the scene in 2017 is more than bolder. It is not a certainty but there is possibility. And since politics abhors a vacuum, Senator Moi is using Kanu to prepare for any eventuality,” Dr Oloo said.

Notably, Mr Moi and the DP have never been on the same side save for the 2002 elections when the then youthful Baringo Central MP was first elected to Parliament.

However, their friendship did not last long after a fallout in 2007 when Kanu supported then President Mwai Kibaki for a second term while DP Ruto rallied with ODM to back Mr Raila Odinga.

Mr Moi lost his seat to Sammy Mwaita in the 2007 elections. But upon winning the Senate seat in 2013 and going against a powerful URP force in the rift valley, analysts now believe that he has established himself as “his own man.”

CLOSEST ALLIES
However, Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen laughed off Mr Moi’s political activities in the Rift Valley, saying he knew well not to challenge the DP.

“My friend Senator Moi must learn from President Daniel Moi. He should learn to support people just like DP Ruto did his father. But even so, they are still not going anywhere and are not a threat,” said Mr Murkomen.

Bomet East MP Bernard Bett, another of DP Ruto’s closest allies, said: “Gideon should be the last person to disrupt DP Ruto’s political fortunes. The community, and more so DP Ruto, supported and respected his father for so long.”