Some time in early 2013, at the height of deal-making, Ruto was rumoured to be headed back to ODM to deputize then Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the 2013 March Elections.
The Kalenjins coalescing around Ruto had earlier fallen out with ODM and the PM over several grievances, from Mau to ICC, and most Rift Valley parliamentarians, like former Cherengany MP Joshua Kuttuny, had spent over two years of aggressive, most often very abusing propaganda onslaught, on the person of Raila Odinga. ooutspoken political activist Tony Gachoka has revealed President Uhuru is being held hostage by one of the campaign funders of his Deputy President’s URP Party, one Jimmi Wanjigi.
But, with the experiences of 2007, a great majority of the Kalenjins had not crossed over the post-election violence and the thought of ‘another Kikuyu’ was still too painful to sell to the community.
Ruto, multiple sources reveal, was facing opposition, even hostility, in most parts of the his expansive rift valley stronghold. Then he begun buying off loyalty, neutralise opposers and shower up possibility of voter apathy.
At this point, senior Kalenjin leaders, many highly respected, were still in ODM, supporting Raila Odinga. They included Henry Kosgei, Dr Sally Kosgey, Prof Margaret Kamar, Frankline Bett, Musa Sirma and, then Kipkelion MP Magerer Langat, currently ODM Executive Director.
Others opinion shapers, like Radio journalist Joshua Arap Sang and Businessman Kibor also remained with the ODM leader. So were most UDM party officials led by Rtd Major John Koech.
It is believed that Ruto spent over Ksh 800 million buying off sections and segments of the kalenjin voting demography. From old ‘elders’ to youths; Ruto literally traded every vote with money – a lot of money.
There were Kalenjin elders booked in exclusive Mombasa beach hotels for weeks. Women groups and youth groups paid homage to Ruto’s Uasin Gishu home and came out hundreds of thousands of shillings richer.
Earlier, there was the bankrolling of UDM which came a cropper. After the refusal by UDM owners – at a time Ruto had used millions in making UDM ‘felt’ on the ground – to hand over the management and ownership of the party; team Ruto then formed URP and aggressively sold it to the people – all these costed hundreds of millions of shillings.
All this happened with the then consensus that Ruto would be on the ballot. He always insited he would be on the ballot. But as tectonic shifts in politics changed with every passing second, it became apparent that Ruto would team up with another politician. Then Uhuru came in the picture!
Of course Kalenjins disliked Uhuru. Not just Uhuru, they had strong reservations about ‘another Kikuyu’. Again loyalties were expensively purchased both at night and during the day. Millions of shillings went into this. For all the cheap talk about tyranny of numbers the oft unsaid side is that the numbers were cajoled. The numbers, especially from Ruto’s side, were massively massaged and oiled and greased. Money was spent! A lot of money!
Multiple sources reveal Wanjigi, apart from brokering the deal which brought the Ruto campaign to team up with the Uhuru Campaign, was among the high ranking financiers of the URP campaign. Others were the AMACO guy Somotwo and the Coast based Kalenjin businessman- the loser of the Standard Gauge Railway deal, David Langat.
Wanjigi had for sometime toyed with the idea of sponsoring ODM but with dwindling prospects, he opportunistically embraced Ruto.
At the root of payments to the ghost Anglo-leasing faceless, nameless ‘owners’ is Ruto paying back Jimmi over the URP funding. Of course Anglo-leasing is a cash cow for the next campaign which, with the blunders and nightmare of this Jubilee government. will be another highly charged, if not outrightly violent campaigns complete with massive vote buying in scales never witnessed before.So this is the cost of a coalition between parties and in the wake of the president being under immense pressure to remain loyal to William Ruto by meeting his financiers's demands,Kenyans are also looking at him to follow the constitution and do the right thing.This makes presidency the most difficult office to sit in.
source:kenya today news
