Rift Valley region overwhelmingly voted for Raila Odinga in the 2007 general elections during the much heated presidential race between him and former president Mwai Kibaki.
There are high chances that Raila won the elections although the final results announced by the then Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) stated otherwise.
At that time, Deputy President William Ruto and Raila were inseparable. Ruto boasted of the maximum support from the Kalenjin community who had endorsed him as their spokesman and Kingpin. For this reason, it was a simple task for him to deliver over 65 per cent of the vote-rich region to Raila Odinga’s basket.
However, the two allies cum political enemies completely fell out soon after the formation of the grand coalition government when he was named among the key suspects behind the post-election skirmishes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The DP was sacked from a ministerial position he was holding as Odinga deserted him during his trials at the ICC. Apart from what befell 'the hustler', Rift Valley residents also cited being sidelined by the coalition government which was under President Kibaki and Odinga as the Prime Minister.
It is not clear whether the ODM leader will be vying for the presidential seat in 2022, but my opinion is that he will not garner any reasonable number of votes from this region as the same person he betrayed after 2007 elections will also be on a mission to lead the country. His home turf will massively support him.
In fact, Ruto can use the 2007 narrative to campaign against Odinga in 2022.
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