Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Ruto coalition bids spark heated debate among Rift supporters


By Vincent Bartoo
Eldoret North MP William Ruto’s recent public declaration that he is working on a pre-election pact with Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has sparked a heated debate among voters in his populous Kalenjin community.
And on Monday, MPs allied to Mr Ruto’s URP met and expressed fear that becoming Uhuru’s running mate might kill the party.
This comes barely two weeks after the much-publicised night meeting between him and Prime Minister Raila Odinga at a Nairobi businessman’s house.
Initially, callers from his community met Ruto’s move with scepticism during a morning talk show on a Kalenjin radio station.
ODM also reacted to Ruto’s move, with the PM’s spokesman Dennis Onyango dismissing the Eldoret MP as “driven by a selfish political agenda”.
“It is emerging that the issues Ruto used to complain about the PM he does not speak about anymore. It is now clear that it was not about Raila,” said Onyango.
During the morning show, opinion was divided over current coalition talks, with some callers supporting an ODM-URP merger while others favouring a Ruto-Uhuru union.
Suicidal
However, some callers opined that a TNA-URP alliance would be suicidal for the country as both leaders are facing charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court over the 2007 post-election violence.
“The problem with the Uhuru-Ruto alliance is that it would be very difficult for the Kikuyu community to vote for the Eldoret North MP if he was the presidential flag bearer and Uhuru his running mate,” said a caller to Chamge FM.
On Kass FM, Ruto was on Monday also the topic of discussion after he announced that he had chosen to work with Uhuru in a presumed political pact ahead of the polls.
Radio callers from the community inundated the vernacular radio station Kass FM to voice their opposition to Ruto’s move, with majority of listeners hitting out at him for allegedly choosing to play second fiddle.
“It is Uhuru who should have announced that he is joining us and not the other way round. Why is Ruto showing desperation? On this one I don’t agree with him,” charged Paul Saina from Marakwet.
Majority of callers wondered why Ruto was rushing to form alliances yet the community had mandated him to gun for the presidency in the first round and seek alliances in round two if there will be no clear winner.
A listener from Nandi, who identified himself as Rodger Miller Kipkorir, said Ruto was now confusing the Kalenjin community that had put their political aspirations on his shoulders.
The heated debate saw other listeners question whether Ruto was doing political business with the Kalenjin community in ongoing negotiations for a pre-election pact.
At Chamge FM, a caller said that Raila was wooing Ruto ahead of the poll so as to ascend to the presidency but would drop him like ‘a hot potato’ after the election.
“It would be insincere and hypocritical for Ruto to mislead the people that he can actually work with Raila even after leading members of his community in severing links with the PM and hurling insults at him for the past two years,” a caller who identified himself as Kimetto said.
And in Nairobi, about 18 MPs who attended the five-hour meeting at Bible Society Guest House expressed agreed that the party has the “capacity” to go it alone at the General Election.
But in the case of an alliance, the MPs were categorical that it must have the approval of the party.
53 parties 
“URP has the capacity to go it alone. It is in every corner of this country. But we know of pre-election and post-election coalitions as provided in the Constitution. We have no problem with all those who want to work with us to form the next government,” said Environment Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere.
The Matuga MP said should the party seek any alliance then the entire of URP has to be involved. “We are ready to discuss the way forward with all the 53 political parties.
But we shall discuss on the terms of URP. The party interest must come fast,” said Mwakwere.
URP Chairman Francis ole Kaparo said his party has not reached a deal with any political party, but said they are open to talks with other parties.
“There have been talks between our leader and other parties because we are not averse to discussions. But there is no done deal with any one,” Mr Kaparo told the media.
Kaparo said URP would be conducting regular meetings to prepare for the elections and set the party’s nominations date on January 7, 2013.
“We also discussed on how best we can give all URP aspirants a chance to make their interest known. We have decided to give them up to December 10, 2012 to file their applications to the party,” added Kaparo.
— Additional reporting By Peter Opiyo




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