Ruto accusing us falsely, say Rift leaders

Deputy President William Ruto’s claim that Baringo Senator Gideon Moi and other leaders from the Rift Valley want him jailed so as to topple him politically has ruffled feathers in the region.

The Deputy President, who spoke on Saturday at the burial of former President Moi’s sister-in-law at Kabobo in Uasin Gishu County, claimed that Mr Moi , Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto and President Kenyatta’s political adviser Joshua Kutuny were hoping that he would be jailed by the International Criminal Court to enable them to wrestle political supremacy from him.

Governor Ruto Sunday said the allegations were strange. He said at no time had he ever wished for the Deputy President’s conviction but had always prayed for him to be released.

“How can I possibly pray for anyone to be jailed so that I could benefit from the process?

“I am on record stating the DP and the other suspects were innocent and that position has not changed,” the governor said.

Mr Ruto said before the suspects attended the first status conference in the Netherlands, he was among the Bomet leaders who mobilised the clergy to conduct prayers for them, and has supported the DP ever since.

“I wonder where the Deputy President is getting the imaginations that I am for him to be jailed,” he told journalists at his home in Tumoi, Chepalungu constituency.

In Baringo, Senator Moi’s aides yesterday said the Kanu chairman would issue an “official and comprehensive statement” on the matter soon.

However Mr Jonathan Bii, Kanu’s Rift Valley representative and Mr Moi’s close ally, said the Deputy President’s sentiments were “uncalled for and ill-timed”.

Mr Bii said Kanu’s heightened activities in the Rift Valley were merely aimed at revamping the party.

MAIZE FARMERS

The activities were also meant to put pressure on the government to address the issues affecting maize farmers, he added.
“There’s nothing sinister. In fact, we have not talked about the ICC issue in public or in private.

“We wish the DP well, unless he has sensed that his boat in sinking. He should be reminded that all he has now is a result of Kanu and he should not fight the Mois,” said Mr Bii, who challenged the DP for the Eldoret North parliamentary seat in 2007.
And Mr Kuttuny, a former Cherangany MP, chose not to respond to Mr Ruto’s claim.

“I wish not to comment about it because he is my boss,” Mr Kuttuny told the Nation on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Opposition leaders in the Rift Valley yesterday said they wished for a speedy conclusion of Mr Ruto’s crimes against humanity case at the ICC.

“Our position as far as ICC is concerned has never changed. We have always advocated for local solutions to local problems.

“We want to be categorical that our party’s rising popularity in the region is primarily because of the Jubilee government’s failure to fulfil its election pledges,” said the Orange Democratic Movement’s secretary for devolution, Mr Kipkorir arap Menjo, in a statement.