Deputy President William Ruto is working quietly to win over western Kenya which overwhelmingly voted for former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the Cord Alliance in the last elections.
Ruto has been meeting elected leaders from the populous region in the last few weeks to appeal to them to work with him and the Jubilee administration.
This weekend he is scheduled to attend two homecoming ceremonies for Mary Emase of Teso South and Arthur Odera of Teso North. Both MPs were elected URP tickets.
Ruto will also officially open two roads—Turbo-Sikhendu road and the Kakamega-Kanduyia which goes through Lurambi and Navaholo constituencies.
"We are determined to develop this area. If the DP can help us get the resources to do that we have no problem," said Navaholo MP Emmanuel Wangwe yesterday.
This will be his fourth visit to the region since the March elections. His first visit was in May when he attended the homecoming party of Lugari MP Ayub Savula before flying to Malava to attend a similar ceremony hosted by Moses Malulu. He was however unable to land because of bad whether.
Ruto returned to Western Kenya again in late May after several people were killed by militia in Busia and Bungoma County. He held several meetings with local leaders to quell the violence that was threatening to get out of hand.
As a result of the recent meetings Ruto has identified a number of youthful MPs from different parties mainly from Musalia Mudavadi's party UDF who he is working with. Ruto and Mudavadi were both deputy party leaders of Raila's ODM before they decamped to form their own parties in their bid for the presidency. Mudavadi and Uhuru Kenyatta both served as deputy Prime Ministers in the last administration.
In the run up to the elections,a tenuous attempt to have the three —Uhurt, Ruto and Mudavadi— form an alliance flopped when Mudavadi was edged out of the Jubile Alliance which eventually saw Uhuru become President and Ruto his deputy. Mudavadi came third in the presidential race.
Ruto's foray into Western is an attempt to try and build support for his UDF and Jubilee Alliance from an electorate which voted overwhelmingly —estimated 70 per cent—in favor of Cord Alliance and its affiliate parties which include Ford-Kenya, New Ford Kenya among others.
The MPs who are working closely with Ruto in his attempts to reach out to Western Kenya voters include Lugari MP Ayub Savula, Sabatia's Alfred Agoi, Vihiga's Yusuf Chanzu and Emanuel Wanwe all of of UDF, Malava’s Moses Malulu of Maendeleo Democratic Party, Kiminini's Chris Wamalwa of Ford Kenya and Jubilee's Deputy Chief Whip Ben Washiali.
Others are Teso South MP Mary Emase and her Teso North counterpart Arthur Odera who were elected to Parliament on URP tickets even though their region's presidential votes went to Raila.
"We do not want to be left out of decision making at the national level that is why we have decided to work with Ruto because he is second in command now," said Savula yesterday.
He denied the visit was in any way to be seen as laying the ground for the strategy that will be adopted in the 2017 elections. "It is too early to discuss that now. For us we want to fight for national resources that we will use to develop our electoral areas," Savula said.
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