The Uhuru, Ruto plot

By Vitalis Kimutai

NAIROBI, KENYA: Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto plan to sign a pre-election pact before their supporters at Uhuru Park in three weeks time.

Both are said to be eager to work together because they are literally bound by the taut ropes of The Hague’s crimes against humanity charges and believe they are ‘safer’ if they join hands and manage to win the Presidency in the first round, a little over a month to the start of the trials on April 10.

Ruto repeatedly told his supporters in his ongoing tour of Rift Valley he will team up, “with Uhuru and other leaders with a serious development agenda for the people.”

Said Ruto: “We want to be done with this election in the fast round before we embark on defending ourselves on the International Criminal Court cases.”

He said the ICC cases had more than before united the people of Rift Valley and Central Kenya.

“We have what it takes to deliver the Presidency in the first round and we are appealing to Kenyans to support us,” he added.

Among those who have confirmed Ruto will be Uhuru’s running-mate are Environment minister Chirau Mwakwere who had initially been declared Ruto’s preferred running-mate, and Cabinet minister Dr Naomi Shaban who is close to Uhuru. 

What The National Alliance and United Republican Party aspirants are now doing is to win over their communities to the joint fight they plan to put up despite the schisms opened up between them by 2008 post-election violence for which they have been blamed.

After the ongoing individual meetings and rallies the aspirants are having in their home turfs, Uhuru and Ruto will from November 15 have joint rallies in the Rift Valley.

From November 20 the two will venture into Mount Kenya region where Uhuru will host Ruto, who sources within the two parties, despite the Eldoret North MP’s denials, say he has endorsed as his running mate in a joint TNA-URP platform.

Uhuru and Ruto are said to have resolved to prepare voters in Rift Valley and Central Kenya for the deal even as their key allies fine-tune the pact they are supposed to sign before it is made public.

Ruto at the weekend led his URP brigade in a tour of North and South Rift Counties for a meeting with elders, opinion leaders and ordinary voters to market.

Strategy

One of the strategies of the tours included locking out Prime Minister Raila Odinga from the region despite unease among a section of Kalenjin community that an alliance with Uhuru was inconceivable and they would rather work with the PM. 

As he strove to sell his message and isolate Raila while preparing his supporters for the blossoming alliance with Uhuru, Ruto on Sunday took the battle to Cabinet Ministers, Dr Sally Kosgei’s (Aldai) and Henry Kosgey’s (Tinderet) constituencies.

Both ministers have accused Ruto of acting against the interest of their community by embracing TNA.

However Ruto has avoided a direct discussion on the deal with TNA, and in his tours of the Rift, which end today, he has left it to his close allies including Mr Charles Keter (Belgut) and Mr Zakayo Cheruiyot (Kuresoi) to make open where the URP cast was headed.

But probably incensed by the many calls opposing his political reunion with Uhuru on radio stations broadcasting in the Kalenjin dialect, as well as the hard-hitting criticism by the two ministers that he was misleading the community, Ruto hit back.

He declared on Saturday that his party would not be told which alliances to consider for the March 4 General Elections.

“Those who want to tell us that you cannot work with this or that community should give us a break,” said Ruto

He also strove to assure his supporters he was still in the race for the presidency and asked them to back him to ensure he wins the presidency. “I want us to walk together and if we co-operate we will form the next government,” he said in Kericho.

Since Friday, Ruto has been in Bomet, Kericho and Nandi counties where he dismissed claims he had entered into a pact with Raila.

He held a meeting with URP allied MPs and some URP officials from the South Rift in Kericho on Saturday evening where strategies to market the TNA-URP ticket were said to have been discussed.

Ruto declared that despite holding talks with Raila, he would not enter into any coalition with him as he had allegedly betrayed Rift Valley residents who voted for him overwhelmingly in 2007.

“I am done with the PM. We would not go into a coalition with ODM. We can forgive him for the wrongs he has committed against us, but we would not vote for him again,” Ruto declared in Kipkelion.

He said URP would not enter into a coalition with a party that everyone was running away from. It is the same message he repeated in Chemaner, Bomet County where he held a rally on Saturday with URP MPs.

“But if he will support me for the Presidency, then that would be okay since I have backed him previously for the top seat,” Ruto said.

Uhuru on the other hand hosted civic leaders from Nyeri and Laikipia Counties for a brainstorming session on the “available options for URP”. Joint rallies between the two leaders have been planned to run between November 15 and December 1 this year.

“The rallies will be held in Nakuru, Kericho, Pokot, Eldoret, Nandi, Marakwet and Baringo,” an MP close to Ruto who is involved in the alliance talks revealed.

Assistant Minister Kareke Mbiuki who is in Uhuru’s camp said similar series will be held in the larger Mount Kenya region from November 20 to cement the coalition and bring members of the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities together before spreading out to other parts of the country.

‘The people’s covenant’

“We will be entering into the next level of the talks which is taking the message (of Uhuru-Ruto unity) to Kenyans as it is important they own the process and enable us to move forward as a team,” Mbiuki said.

“We are going out in a few days to market the initiative to the people as we must deliver the Presidency in the first round with those who share our political ideals,” revealed Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi.

“We are going to woo other regions including Kisii, North Eastern, Coast and Nairobi,” explained an MP from Central Kenya and close Uhuru ally.

It is expected the pre-election pact between TNA and URP will be signed during a joint public rally planned for Uhuru Park at the end of the month so as to beat the December 4 deadline for coalition agreements to be deposited with Registrar of Political Parties. “It is important that the pre-election coalition agreement is signed in broad daylight in the presence of voters. This will be the people’s covenant,” Cheranganyi MP Joshua Kuttuny said.

Uhuru, who has met with Ruto many times, is also understood to have separately met MPs and professionals from Nairobi and the larger Mount Kenya region for same reason.

A team of MPs from TNA and URP were mandated to hammer out the finer details of the pre-election agreement, which would also incorporate other smaller parties.

The URP spokesman Adan Dualle said Ruto had become the most sought after Presidential hopeful owing to the popular support he enjoys across the country.