Trouble began to brew in the region following the suspension of the ODM deputy party leader and was heightened by the attack on Mr Ruto last Sunday by Roads minister Franklin Bett.
Fallout from the constitutional referendum have revived the sharp divisions which pro-Ruto MPs say will be replicated in the 2012 General Election.
Presidential winner
In the most public support for the PM yet, Mr Bett said on October 24 that the PM would emerge the presidential winner in 2012 and urged the Kalenjin to support him so as not to be excluded from the next government.
He added that the Eldoret North MP was wasting his time attacking the PM. “Whether the Kalenjin community supports him or not, the truth of the matter is that he (Raila) is the next president and will win by a landslide. My fear for my community is that they may be left out for being misled by some leaders,” Mr Bett said at a fundraising meeting in Narok South.
Apart fom the Bureti MP, Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey and his Agriculture counterpart Sally Kosgey last week led 30 councillors in declaring support for the PM, with Mrs Kosgey saying Mr Odinga was a reformist who merited support.
Assistant minister Magerer Lang’at and MPs Julius Murgor, Wilson Litole and Musa Sirma are also known supporters of the Langata MP.
Other leaders from the Kalenjin community, including East African Co-operation minister Hellen Sambili, assistant minister Beatrice Kones and Sotik’s Joyce Laboso, have not publicly stated their positions, but neither have they attacked the PM.
Outspoken ally
Mr Ruto’s most outspoken ally, Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny, who disclosed that they had already found a party to move to but were acting cautiously to avoid being sabotaged, said leaders attacking Mr Ruto were digging their political graves.
“We are watching and working hard to keep the community together at this time of our collective low moment. Anybody trying to take advantage of William’s woes will not be pardoned by community members,” Mr Kutuny said.
He added that Mr Ruto’s sustained record of championing the community’s interests would be his biggest weapon in galvanising support and that those trying to sway the community now had no such record and therefore would not succeed.
“Even those who were earlier vocal in their criticism of William like nominated MP Musa Sirma have seen the light and have gone quiet. Maybe those who are speaking out do not care about their political careers,” said the Cherangany MP.
Event of the moment
He added that politics are dictated by events and that the event of the moment was Ruto’s supremacy in the region.
“Those who would like to oppose Mr Ruto can wait for 2017 when issues might have changed. But for now, they have a snowball’s chance in hell as they are driven by personal and not community agenda,” he said.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Chepalungu’s Isaac Ruto who nevertheless sought to fashion himself as independent minded and not necessarily a Ruto defender.
Saying he had always had an issue with his party leader, he stressed that Kalenjin interests lay anywhere other than with ODM.
“My differences with Raila are ideological. I am nobody’s follower, but I am certain that any politician who will try to go against the advice we shall give the community in due course will be swept away into political Siberia,” he said.
Mr Odinga enjoyed massive support in the Kalenjin Rift Valley in the last elections, but his relationship with the region’s leaders soured shortly after the formation of the grand coalition government over what the latter termed a raw deal in the distribution of Cabinet posts.
They also differed over the Mau Forest evictions, which the premier was championing, and over how to try suspected perpetrators of post-election violence.
A section of councillors from Bomet and Kericho counties also warned MPs from the region who were not supporting Mr Ruto that they risked losing their seats in 2012.
Mr Magerer dismissed the remarks, saying the councillors had been bribed and that their shouts would not lessen Mr Ruto’s woes. “That is dirty money oiling such opinions,” he said, adding that Mr Ruto did not hold one voter’s card for the whole of Rift Valley.
“I would rather err on the right side of history than support an individual who has always fought to take Kenya backwards,” said the Kipkelion MP.
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