Deputy President William Ruto is arguably the remaining Kalenjin kingpin and outstanding Rift Valley leader even amid his local critics’ persistent salvos against his race to the state house in 2022.
The longest-serving former Eldoret North MP Dr Ruto who was a chicken seller has been able to maintain his politics in Rift Valley when he solidly took over after retired President Daniel Moi's 24 years of reign.
With his political cliché of telling off his political rivals ‘nikujipanga my friend,’ DP as Moi’s political student has been receiving a delegation of local leaders, political opinion makers and elders in his backyard in Sugoi to foster unity among Kalenjin sub-tribes.
Furthermore, the second-in-command has left no chance for his political rival, KANU party leader Gideon Moi to thrive in the region; he wooed Moi’s ally Charles Kamuren to cross over to Jubilee and clinch Baringo South parliamentary seat in the last by-election on a Jubilee party ticket.
With farmers’ woes gathering momentum in his backyard, the soft-spoken master of Kalenjin wits poured cold water to local leaders against the call of farmers diversification, an agricultural policy initiated by the national government for farmers to adopt mix cropping model to solve perennial problems in maize production.
Speaking in local dialect in Uasin Gishu barely a week ago, Ruto scolded leaders peddling ‘maize politics’ misleading farmers by urging them to engage in profitable farming other than being obsessive to ‘Ugali’, thus he absolutely resonates with local farmers.
As he prepares to bolster his bid to the presidency in 2022, the self-proclaimed hustler is making attempts to reach out to his political rivals, wooing veteran politicians including former Bomet governor Isaac Ruto and ANC deputy party leader Kipruto Kirwa among others, to his side in a bid to consolidate support ahead of next polls.
#hivisasaoriginal