President William Ruto on Wednesday used a closed-door State House meeting to attack his former deputy Rigathi Gachagua and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, even as he said he turned to ODM leader Raila Odinga after the former vice president rejected his advances.
Buoyed by his close working relationship with his erstwhile political arch-rival-turned-close ally, Mr Odinga, and a sense of renewed confidence among a coterie of his Ukambani allies, President Ruto said he was ready to work with Mr Musyoka.
But there was a problem, Dr Ruto said, adding Mr Musyoka was apparently playing hard to get.
"After we were done with the 2022 election, I reached out to Mr Musyoka before reaching out to Mr Odinga but he turned down the offer. He said vomwe vetwe (let us stubbornly not relent)," President Ruto said, referring to Mr Musyoka's political mantra. This is the second time in two years President Ruto has made the same revelation.
Still, President Ruto indicated a readiness to overlook Mr Musyoka and work directly with grassroots leaders.
“You people cannot pretend to be more opposition than the opposition itself," President Ruto said after decrying Mr Musyoka's hardliner politics, in apparent reference to the fact that he is now working with Mr Odinga.
He openly mocked his former deputy, Mr Gachagua, who was impeached at his urging in October last year, and has since teamed up with Mr Musyoka as he exuded confidence in vanquishing the opposition in the 2027 General Election.
"Someone who cannot marshal a paltry 14 senators required to rescue himself from an impending impeachment cannot marshal millions of Kenyans towards a political cause. He squandered a big opportunity which I had offered him. He is full of hate and vengeance. Do not allow these people to mislead you," Dr Ruto added.
The meeting with a delegation of Ukambani professionals and grassroots leaders happened at a time when the Head of State is looking to take a chunk of Mr Musyoka’s two million vote bloc of Machakos, Makueni, and Kitui counties, which the former vice president has traditionally controlled from as early as 2007.
“The agenda of the opposition is chanting ‘Ruto Must Go’, ‘One Term’ and ‘Kasongo’. They have no agenda on agriculture, healthcare, and housing,” President Ruto told the Ukambani leaders on Wednesday.
The consultative forum which saw President Ruto lay bare his determination to change the Ukambani region's political landscape which is dominated by Mr Musyoka came a day after the former vice president declared himself the 2027 opposition presidential candidate after sensationally tearing into President Ruto whom he accused of misrule and oppressing his critics.
"The liberation of this country will come from the east," Mr Musyoka said in reference to his Ukambani backyard during the burial of his uncle David Mburu Mairu at Kathungu Village in Kitui County.
"It is no longer a secret that William Ruto will compete with Kalonzo Musyoka in the ballot and he will go home,” he added on the day he joined Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua and Makueni County Assembly Speaker Douglas Mbilu in discouraging his lieutenants from attending the planned State House meeting.
Kitui and Machakos assembly speakers Kinengo Katisya and Anne Kiusya led a section of Mr Musyoka’s allies in defying him.
Top on the tactics President Ruto has lined up as he eyes part of Ukambani's approximately two million votes is poaching Mr Musyoka’s allies and a meet the people tour in June.
“As soon as we are done with Madaraka Day celebrations in Homabay County, the next stop is Ukambani,” President Ruto said at the State House meeting which brought together at least 1,500 delegates.
The Head of State is expected to launch infrastructure projects worth billions of shillings during the maiden development tour in the region.
He used the State House forum to shed light on the Kenya Kwanza administration scorecard. He said he had fixed the country's economy through a raft of painful decisions such as withdrawing subsidies on basic commodities such as maize flour and fuel, and increasing taxation as he projected a bright future for the country.
“We cannot afford to leave the Kamba community behind as we transform this country. There is no pride in being in the opposition,” President Ruto said at the event dominated by calls on the Kamba community to ditch the opposition.
Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua, Kangundo MP Fabian Kyule, Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse, Kitui South MP Rachael Kaki, Machakos Town MP Caleb Mule and Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka, as well as nominated senators Beth Syengo (Orange Democratic Movement) and Tabitha Mutinda (United Democratic Alliance), accused Mr Musyoka of misleading the Kamba community.
The head of the African Brotherhood Church, Archbishop Timothy Ndambuki, the chairman of the Ukambani chapter of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, Major Leonard Kasyoka, and the head of the Catholic Church in Machakos County Bishop Norman King'oo led clerics in pledging their loyalty to President Ruto.
"The church in this region has taken the heat for campaigning for President Ruto. We have no apologies to make. In fact, we are ready to campaign for him again because all we want is development in Ukambani," said Mr Kasyoka.
The State House meeting came against the backdrop of sustained public outcry over the state of development in the Ukambani region which voted overwhelmingly for the Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga in the 2022 General Election.
The last two years have seen President Ruto’s administration take the heat for allegedly sidelining the region in terms of infrastructure projects.
“We had become very jealous because we used to see President Ruto touring other parts of the country while giving Ukambani a wide berth,” former Kitui Senator David Musila said.
The audience erupted in excitement as President Ruto enumerated affordable housing, electrification, roads, and water projects worth billions of shillings earmarked for the Ukambani region.
He announced advanced stages to complete the Kibwezi-Kitui Road which stalled at Kwa Siku Township in Kitui County, 13 kilometers before it joined the Mwingi-Thika highway. He pledged to tarmac Chyuluni-Zombe and Mutomo-Mutha roads in Kitui County, the Kangundo-Mwala and Kivandini-Miseleni roads in Machakos County, and the Emali-Ukia Road in Makueni County.
“Roughly, the projects earmarked for Kitui, Machakos, and Makueni counties by the government in the next two years are nearly 50 percent of the total value of projects successive regimes have invested in the region,” Mr Mutuse told the State House forum without elaborating.
Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi dismissed the State House meeting as a waste of time. He characterised President Ruto’s allies in the region as political brokers as he wondered why the government had not actualized its pledges for the region.
“Before the 2022 election, Kenya Kwanza moved across the county collecting views on regional development concerns. What stops them from implementing those projects since they are already in office?
You do not need people to go and kneel down for their region to get the development projects they deserve from the national government. This is undermining Mr Musyoka whom we know as a president in waiting. Someone is playing political games. We shall deal with them,” he said yesterday.
