Deputy President William Ruto is yet again set to make another huge political score in his bid to consolidate his Rift Valley backyard ahead of his 2022 Presidential run.
Former Bomet governor Isaac Ruto, who was a NASA co-principle in the run to 2017 general elections will today (Friday, January 15)make a comeback to DP Ruto’s camp, handing his former ally-turned-foe a boost.
The DP is set to receive Rutto during an event to be held in Bomet in what is seen as part of his elaborate strategy to ring-fence his Rift Valley bastion ahead of next year’s election.
He will be in Bomet to commission several projects, hand over a bus to the National Super League side Silibwet FC and later preside over a fundraiser for boda boda Saccos in Sotik, among other events.
The former governor will meet the DP face to face for the first time since 2018, ushering in a new partnership to consolidate the region.
The DP, who has fallen out with President Uhuru Kenyatta, is keen to diminish pockets of rebellion in his backyard as he prepares for a presidential run next year.
On Sunday, Rutto said he is ready to support the DP for the country’s top post “if we agree on principle”.
“I am not in an alliance with anybody. After all, nobody has asked me to back him or her for presidency. If William seeks my support, we shall discuss, and if he supports the tenets CCM stands for – like devolving resources – then I will back him. There’s nothing personal,” he told the Sunday Nation.
The DP has been facing a threat that could have chipped away a section of his main support base after Rutto last year led his Chama Cha Mashinani party in signing a cooperation agreement with Jubilee Party.
When he signed the agreement, there was talk of major Cabinet changes that would have seen Rutto’s entry into Uhuru’s government in what would be a strategy to tame the DP in the Rift Valley.
His change of heart to join the DP camp could puncture the Building Bridges Initiative campaigns in the Rift Valley given that the CCM party leader was a key point man of the process in the region.
Kanu chairman Gideon Moi, the son of the country’s second President who also hails from the Rift Valley, is working closely with Uhuru after the Independence party signed a coalition agreement with Jubilee.
Rutto and Gideon had been seen as a political force that would have complicated the DP’s efforts to put the region under lock and key ahead of next year’s polls.
Rutto’s move to join the DP’s camp is seen as part of his plan to recapture the Bomet governor’s seat, which he lost to the late Joyce Laboso who was backed by Ruto in 2017.
Rutto and the DP have had frosty relations since 2013 and in the lead-up to the 2017 polls. They last met face to face in 2018 at a public function at Siongiroi in Chepalungu, Bomet county.
They have not been seeing eye to eye, a situation that could complicate Rutto’s gubernatorial ambitions after staying in the political cold for five years.
The former governor is set for another political duel in his bid to oust incumbent Hillary Barchok. A week ago, Rutto was greeted with unfriendly chants at Kuresoi in Nakuru where he had made a stopover.
Angry youths demanded he join the wheelbarrow movement spearheaded by Ruto if he wanted to salvage his political future.
