Sunday, December 11, 2011

Raila rekindles battle for Rift Valley amid rising challenge from UDM




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By JULIUS SIGEI jsigei@ke.nationmedia.com AND GEOFFREY RONO grono@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Sunday, December 11  2011 at  01:18
Prime Minister Raila Odinga has renewed his fight to win back the Rift Valley vote with a surprise visit to Chepalungu, a constituency represented by Mr Isaac Ruto, one of his most vocal critics.
The PM, who was on his way to Bondo for a function, unexpectedly stopped by Holy Family Siongiroi Catholic Church, and what had been billed as a fundraiser turned into a showdown between the PM and Mr Ruto’s supporters.
There has been no love lost between the two since 2007 when Mr Ruto became the first MP from the Rift Valley to criticise Mr Odinga over the Mau Forest evictions that the PM was spearheading in early 2008.
Rivalry peaked
Their rivalry peaked in 2009 with a dispute over the choice of where to build the local district headquarters.
While Mr Ruto and some residents were said to favour Sigor trading centre citing infrastructure, the PM and his supporters preferred Siongiroi saying it has been the traditional headquarters for the constituency.
Last Sunday’s meeting was the first time the two were sharing a podium in four years as Mr Ruto had previously kept away from any meeting the PM attended in the constituency, saying he was not invited.
The PM, who received a warm welcome from local residents, ordered the resumption of the construction of the stalled Siongiroi district headquarters after asking the residents to show by hand where they wanted the offices to be located.
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Early last year, Mr Odinga presided over the ground-breaking ceremony for the buildings but construction work stopped towards the end of the year following a directive from the ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.
The ministry said that the three-acre piece of land on which the headquarters was to be built was within the Chepalungu forest bloc.
During the church function, the usually combative Mr Ruto struck a conciliatory tone, asking his constituents to respect all aspirants irrespective of their parties.
“I can see this is an ODM meeting. Go sell your policies and we shall respect the winner. And if you have said you want the district to be built here, I have no objection,” said the MP, who has declared his interest in vying for the Bomet County governor’s seat.
The push for the headquarters to be built at Siongiroi is seen by many as a bait to get voters to stay in ODM.
Even then, Mr Ruto, a key ally of Eldoret North MP William Ruto, has been seeking to get the Rift Valley electorate to join United Democratic Movement (UDM).
UDM has been making waves in the Rift Valley after Mr Ruto led a group of MPs opposed to Mr Odinga in declaring their support for UDM.
The government had allocated Sh30 million for the construction of the district headquarters under the Economic Stimulus Programme.
And while issuing the orders to have the project completed, the Premier invited the Chepalungu MP to work with him.
“It is a cardinal rule for a government to ensure that projects started are completed to avoid wastage of public funds, and I ask my brother Ruto to work with me on this and other projects,” said the PM.
Exploit the gains
Mr Odinga urged Bomet County residents to elect trustworthy leaders during the next election to exploit the gains of the Constitution.
As an indication the PM was keen to win back the Rift Valley electorate, which supported him in the 2007 General Election, Lands minister James Orengo – a strong supporter of the PM – led a group of ODM ministers on a tour of Kuresoi district where he announced that at least 400 families evicted from the Mau forest will be resettled at the end of this month.
The minister said he had identified 1,000 acres in Kuresoi that will be used to resettle evictees camped at the Kipkongor transitional camp. Each of the families will get two-and-a-quarter acres.
“The remaining families at the camp and other evictees in Kuresoi and Konoin districts will have been resettled within the next six months,” he added.

The move in August by Mr Odinga to appoint retired President Daniel arap Moi’s son Gideon to head the Mau Forest resettlement was also seen as an attempt to pacify the region.Mr Orengo further said that the embargo that had been imposed on land owners whose farms were suspected to have been part of the Mau Complex eight years ago and which barred them from selling the parcels or using them to secure loans had been lifted.
Pundits, however, say the PM’s near rapturous reception in Chepalungu was not reflective of the whole region as he was addressing people with a specific grievance and meeting their need.

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