Ruto fights on

Agriculture Minister William Ruto has revealed the genesis of his differences with Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Opening up just days after Raila, the ODM party leader, extended an olive branch to a group of ‘rebel’ members, the Eldoret North MP revealed he had differed with the PM "in principle" over the handling of the 2007 post-election violence related issues.

The minister lists arbitrary arrests and detention of innocent youths in police cells, "skewed" findings of the Justice Phillip Waki-led probe committee and the Mau Complex recovery row as some of "the divisive factors that have made it difficult to work with the PM".

"Police killed several innocent youths who were peacefully protesting the disputed poll, arrested, detained and subjected hundreds of others on trumped up charges and left them languishing in prisons and cells," said Ruto.

Without mentioning names, the minister charged that "some senior ODM leaders" abandoned the youths who had heeded their calls to protest peacefully.

He claimed that when "these leaders" eventually pushed for their release, they did so half-heartedly.

"The youths’ only mistake is that they responded to calls for mass action from the party’s top hierarchy and the police arrested innocent people, leaving out the bigwigs. The law was selectively applied," Ruto said.

Talk show

Speaking yesterday during a morning talk show on a vernacular radio station, Kass FM, the ODM deputy party, however, did not close avenues for reconciliation with his party boss.

"The differences between Raila and I are on principle and nothing personal. I believe the issues can be resolved amicably within the party structures," Ruto said.

But he added a rider: "There are problems in the party and political rallies cannot be used as a platform to resolve them."

This was in obvious reference to last Saturday’s rally in Tononoka, Mombasa, attended by the PM and where he and Tourism Minister Najib Balala came under heavy attack from colleagues.

While responding to speakers who had called for the sacking of Ruto and Balala at the rally, Raila struck a conciliatory tone, saying the party needs all its members.

Explaining his absence at the charged rally in Balala’s constituency, Ruto said he was playing host to the Tourism minister who was launching the North Rift Tourism circuit.

"We felt the launch of the North Rift Tourism Circuit was an important economic event for our people and since it had been planned several months earlier, we could not forfeit it," Ruto explained.

Waki team

The Minister also took a swipe at the Waki Report, which he dismissed as biased for documenting hearsay. Ruto claims the Waki team did not give a chance to those implicated to defend themselves.

Even as says he is willing to make up with Raila and colleagues in ODM, Ruto maintains he will not be backing down in his bid for the presidency in the 2012 General Election.

"This is my democratic right as I have attained the required qualification for a presidential candidate," he told his audience.

Revisiting the controversial fundraiser held recently at Panafric Hotel, Nairobi, in aid of families evicted from Mau forest, the minister reiterated it was not a political but humanitarian response "from those who felt touched by the plight of the victims".

"The fundraising was not any different from the one held for the fire tragedy victims and that of families displaced during the post-election violence. Some mischievous individuals who did not support the cause read politics in it," Ruto charged.

Text messages

He claimed that many would be donors, especially MPs, received phone calls and text messages dissuading them against attending the fundraiser. However, most of them defied and responded to the humanitarian call.

"Some of those who did not want the families to be assisted went to an extent of claiming it was a Kikuyu, Kalenjin and Kamba (KKK) affair when we had people from across the country Coast, Nairobi, Eastern, North Eastern, Western and Rift Valley," he said.

During the meeting, however, politics took centre stage with the PM being the target of attack.

Speakers lauded the emergence of KKK as a political force and prayed to God not to allow "this man" to come close to any seat of power.

While Ruto might have genuine personal concerns for partying ways, critics point out that he has dramatised the same for political mileage.

During the Tononoka rally, for instance, Higher Education minister Dr Sally Kosgei advised against rebellion stating that there are better ways of expressing dissatisfaction.

"There is feeling among some of us that the Mau issue was poorly handled by Government and that it can be done better. But that is no an excuse for one to declare his political ambition," said Kosgei.

Her Industrialisation counterpart, Henry Kosgey, who publicly criticised Raila for the crude eviction of Mau settlers that had left many destitute by the roadside, explained that difference in opinion did not amount to fallout within ODM leadership.

Vote-rich region

In the meantime, the quiet battle between Raila and Ruto over control of the Rift Valley Province continues.

Among the Kalenjin, who are the majority in the vast and vote-rich region, Ruto has the upper hand with the support of most MPs, except Cabinet ministers, Kosgey, Franklin Bett (Roads), and MPs Magerer Langat (Kipkelion) MP Musa Sirma (Nominated) who are believed to back Raila.