Deputy President William Ruto is set to tour Raila Odinga’s backyard to drum up support for his “hustler movement”.
The Star has established that Ruto is expected to grace church fundraisers and youth and women empowerment in Migori county next month.
He will be in Kuria East and Kuria West constituencies.
Kuria East MP Mathias Robi said “all is set to give the DP the reception he deserves”.
He said the DP has been to the region before for development agenda.
“We will be with the DP in March in our region. The residents of this region are looking forward to receiving him. He has the interest of our people and that is why he is coming to empower the youth and women,” Robi told the Star on phone.
The DP is schedule to embark on tours to ODM strongholds even as a former strategist of Raila has said Luo Nyanza owes Ruto a political debt and should be paid back in 2022.
Image: ROBERT OMOLLO
Eliud Owalo on Monday told the Star that the DP supported the former Prime Minister’s presidential bid in 2007 and ensured that Rift Valley voted for him almost to man.
He said it is now the turn of the four Nyanza counties to return the favour to Ruto whom he said he led his community baptized Raila to “Arap Mibei” ending the historical animosity between the Kalenjins and the Luos.
“The Luo community owes William Ruto a political debt based on his support, commitment and aggressive campaign for Raila Odinga’s Presidential bid in the year 2007,” he said.
Owalo- DP’s point man in Nyanza- told the Star that the 2022 presidential race will be defined by development agenda and not “bedroom” politics.
“We believe a William Ruto-led government will be participatory, all-inclusive and responsive to the challenges facing the Kenyan majority that revolves around high levels of unemployment, high cost of living, lack of entrepreneurial opportunities and inadequate means of basic subsistence for the Kenyan majority,” he said.
Owalo who has worked for both Raila and ANC’s Musalia Mudavadi said the “hustler movement is unstable and is now being received across the country well”.
He said it is only the Ruto Presidency that can ensure equity in development without considering without considering the presidential voting patterns.
“Apart from the DP being ahead of the pack in relation to other 2022 presidential candidates, a Ruto Presidency will guarantee the Lake Region tangible development that entails revitalization of the cotton and sugar industries; value-addition to fishing supply chain, facilitation of a access to credit for trade and entrepreneurship; and infrastructure development as an enabler,” he told the Star.
He said Luo Nyanza is ready for a paradigm shift “from retrogressive and parochial political rhetoric to an issue-based and progressive political narrative anchored on a tangible and sustainable development agenda”.
Owalo noted that the reason why Nyanza has embraced Ruto is because of his “issue based, tribe-less, and responsive agenda for all Kenyans.”
“We are inspired by the Deputy President’s hustler empowerment agenda anchored on a bottoms-up economic policy framework that would effectively address the challenges facing the poor segments of the Kenyan society that has hitherto been overlooked since independence,” he said.
He added, “we are sick and tired of and would no longer be part and parcel of the vicious-circle of opposition politics that has characterized Luo Nyanza in the past.”
He said plans are underway that will see the DP embark of a tour of the lakeside region to sell his agenda for the residents of the region.
The DP has embarked on yet another charm offensive to make inroads in Nyanza region ahead of the 2022 general election.
In the last two years, the DP has send a team of his confidants including his son Nick Ruto to the lakeside counties where they have graced fund raisers and engaged in other social activities in the region.
Ruto has had many political activities in all parts of the country except in the Luo Nyanza region, which is Odinga’s home and political stronghold.
He has however frequented the South Nyaza region-Kisii and Nyamira counties .
He has been under pressure from his supporters in the four Nyanza counties but the DP tour the region to market his “hustler movement” 17 months to the 2022 poll.
It is a Constitutional requirement that a presidential candidate can only be declared a winner after getting more than half of all the votes cast and at least twenty-five per cent of the votes cast in each of more than half of the counties.
In a clear signal that Ruto is keen to get a slice of his friend turned foe and Raila’s support base, the DP over the weekend dispatched his brother David Ruto who graced a church harambee and opened a UDA office in Kisumu county.
David was accompanied by DP’s longtime friend George Oyugi popularly known as Mbuta in political circles.
By THE STAR