Stakes are high ahead of President William Ruto’s five-day visit to Western region, with expectations of initiation of various development projects, even as supremacy battles among local leaders loom ahead of the beginning of the tour on Saturday.
State House announced that the visit will cover four counties: Busia, Bungoma, Kakamega and Vihiga.
"During the tour, he will inaugurate, commission, and inspect various government projects that directly benefit Kenyans, aligning with the government's bottom-up economic agenda," State House spokesperson Hussein Mohammed said in a statement Friday.
But even as the tour begins, already a section of leaders from the region have challenged him to explain the position of the Mulembe Nation in his administration, following a pre-election pact to offer 30 percent share of his government to the region and ensure tarmacking of at least 1,000 kilometres of roads.
In a pre-election pact with Amani National Congress (ANC) and Ford Kenya parties, President Ruto, then Deputy President, made a deal with party leaders Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula to name them as Prime Cabinet Secretary and Speaker of the National Assembly respectively, in addition to a 30 percent stake in his administration and tarmacking of the 1,000 kilometres of roads, among other promises.
On Friday, the local organising committee told Nation that it was all systems go ahead of the presidential visit, with Kakamega Deputy Governor Ayub Savula saying Mr Mudavadi, as part of the Executive from the region, will take charge of the visit while Mr Wetang’ula, as the legislative head, will lead legislators.
“We have no room for political brokers to purport to run the show here as the president’s tour begins. We are urging the president to work with elected leaders who have the peoples’ mandate for the sake of development in this region,” Mr Savula said.
United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Secretary-General Cleophas Malala said the president has committed to visit the region on development grounds for implementation of projects, revival of collapsed industries and to strengthen the party.
He led a section of leaders from Kakamega, Vihiga, Bungoma, Trans Nzoia and Busia Counties to State House where they discussed various issues to be presented to the president for implementation, a meeting that seemed not to have gone down well with other senior leaders from the region.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale said Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetang’ula cannot be ignored in any planning of the Western tour as they are the senior most Mulembe leaders.
But as the president is set to begin his visit, already the tour has generated debate among leaders with those allied to Azimio la Umoja One Kenya led by Raila Odinga, who enjoys sizeable support in the area, saying the tour is mere political public relations at the expense of tangible newly budgeted for projects.
ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna on Friday said that only Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetang’ula had benefitted from plum positions as per their pre-election pact with President Ruto yet other commitments have not been met.
“They made promises they knew were not going to be fulfilled…Once Weta and Muda (sic) got their slots, they forgot their own people,” Mr Sifuna asserted.
He accused the Kenya Kwanza administration of trying to “sell Nzoia and Mumias sugar companies”, adding that were it not for the noise they made the president would have succeeded.
“Now he (president Ruto) fears the people and is blaming us in the opposition for the hostile ground awaiting him. This is what informed Oparanya’s arrest,” Mr Sifuna charged.
Mr Oparanya, the ODM Deputy Party leader and Azimio Executive Chairman, was grilled over the alleged procurement irregularities and embezzlement in Kakamega when he was governor.
Mr Osotsi on Friday said it was ill-advised to subject Mr Oparanya to such “intimidation,” ahead of the president’s Western tour, warning that the move has angered locals.
“Arresting Oparanya has annoyed many people. There is a feeling he is being intimidated ahead of the tour but we want to tell them that intimidation using corruption will not work,” Mr Osotsi said.
The Vihiga senator also noted that already there are three centres of power in Kenya Kwanza in the region, pitting Mr Mudavadi, Mr Wetang’ula and Mr Malala in the region, a pointer to disorganisation ahead of the tour.
“It is evident that the trio are fighting for control of the region and the tour, and this was evident following Malala’s leading some political rejects to State House at the expense of Mudavadi and Wetang’ula, something that did not go down well with many leaders in the alliance including Dr Khalwale who has voiced his concerns on the matter,” said Mr Osotsi.
ANC Secretary-General Omboko Milemba, an ally of Mr Mudavadi backed Dr Khalwale’s sentiments that the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Mr Wetang’ula are senior leaders in the pecking order in government and in the region and deserve to be respected and given the mandate to take charge of the president’s tour.
“Khalwale was right and you don’t need to be a professor to realise the leadership in Western is about the two leaders – Mudavadi and Wetang’ula,” he said. “We have no quarrel over their ranking but the two leaders will take charge of the president’s tour.”
Mr Milemba, the Emuhaya MP, said they remain focused on development agenda, and expect a discourse on how to develop the sugar industry, which is the backbone of the region.
“We thank the president for his positive gesture thus far following his commitment to waiver loans, including interests in banks. That’s the beginning of salvaging the industry in Western and we say the bail out is a great milestone,” the legislator said.
He also lauded President Ruto for “reversing cabinet decision to privatise sugar industries and introducing a new model on lease, which means locals will continue to own their cane farms and the industries themselves.”
On the 30 percent share of government to the region, Mr Savula noted that they are positive about President Ruto’s gestures to the area despite not overwhelmingly voting for him in the last election.
“We did not overwhelmingly vote for Dr Ruto but he has shown commitment by opening doors for our sons and daughters in his government. We are happy with his appointment of Mudavadi and Wetang’ula to senior State positions and the recent naming of our son Renson Mulele Igonga as the Director of Public Prosecutions,” he said.
Vihiga Woman Representative Beatrice Adagala, who doubles up as ANC Deputy Party Leader, also noted that the region’s support for President Ruto was paying off.
“We are looking forward to an amazing interaction with the Head of State and our two principals – Mudavadi and Wetang’ula will take charge of this visit,” she said.
There have been concerns of the pecking order between Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetang’ula in terms of seniority owing to their positions in government, with Mr Mudavadi’s allies insisting he is the third in command after Deputy president Rigathi Gachagua while Mr Wetang’ula’s say as the head of the legislature in the Country, he comes ahead of Mr Mudavadi in the pecking order.
On Friday, a Kenya Kwanza-allied MP from Kakamega County also set the tempo for another protest, citing that despite the county’s vast geographical area and rich votes, it has no Cabinet Secretary, an issue he said was of great concern to them.
“Kakamega lacks a full Cabinet minister. Appointment of Harriet Chiggai as a mere advisor to the president on women affairs and that of Beatrice Inyangala did not go down well with the electorate,” the legislator said. “We consider appointments of persons from the area to State offices as far less than satisfactory.”
Mr Sifuna warned the president against any attempts to talk about the same roads he has been talking about since 2013 in the region.
“Take for instance the C41 linking Kakamega and Bungoma. He lied to the people back in 2019 that two contractors had been given the job. Up to today the road is unfinished. In this year’s budget he has allocated money enough only for 4Kms when the total road is 42Kms,” he said.
Mr Osotsi said their real expectations is that the president “will commission new projects and not engage in public relations exercise of relaunching projects which were earlier on launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta or current and former governors.”
“The residents also expect him to honour his pre-election pledges contained in the Kenya Kwanza coalition pact between UDA on one hand and Ford K/ANC on the other hand,” the senator said.
“In the pact deposited at the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties, they agreed on the following – 30 percent share of government, 1,00km of tarmac road, industries in each of the five counties, full revival of Mumias Sugar, among other promises.”
He said President Ruto is welcome in the region but “must be alive to the fact that majority of the people support Azimio coalition and Raila Odinga.”
“It is also illegal for the Kenya Kwanza to engage in projects which are ideally devolved to counties like housing, markets and county industrial parks with minimal involvement of counties and without appropriate legal instruments.”
President Ruto will preside over the launch of the Mulukhoba Fish Landing Site, open a county hospital, and dedicate a library at Alupe University in Busia County.
Later, he will initiate the '220 unit' Milimani Estate affordable housing project in Lurambi, Kakamega County. The President will also preside over the launch of the construction of the Bungoma County Aggregation and Industrial Park in Bungoma County, and tour the Nzoia Sugar Company, among other projects.
The Head of State is also scheduled to chair a cabinet meeting at Kakamega State Lodge, as well as a meeting with local farmers.
Throughout the working tour, President Ruto aims to engage closely with both the people and leadership of the region, emphasising his commitment to the region’s development, said Mr Mohamed, the State House spokesperson.
