Ruto’s Nyanza allies blame protests on entitled leaders

National Assembly Majority Whip Silvanus Osoro, Migori Governor Ochillo Ayacko, Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi and Migori Senator Eddie Oketch during a church service in Nyatike, Migori county /HANDOUT

The recent protests in Kenya were engineered by leaders opposed to other regions getting a share of the national cake, President William Ruto's allies in Nyanza have said.

Speaking during a church service in Nyatike, Migori county on Sunday July 13, they said the General Election in 2027 will end decades of political entitlement.

“All the chaos you are seeing in Nairobi is because some regions like Nyanza have for the first time had the National Treasury,” National Assembly Majority Whip Silvanus Osoro said.

Expressing confidence in Ruto’s re-election, he added, “This 2027 politics is politics of killing entitlement in this country.” 

He said political blackmail and ethnic mobilisation have no place in modern Kenyan politics.

Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi said nobody should dream of using unrest to ascend to power.

He said the country is a democracy with clear guidelines on how to change leadership.

“We have a functional IEBC in place,” Wandayi said. "Those who harbour an interest in seats should now wait for 2027. People should not think there is another route of getting to power apart from through the elections."

He described the Ruto-Raila partnership as a Godsend and an opportunity that has helped to stabilise the country.

“I want to thank our people for heeding to our call to shun demonstrations,” Wandayi said, adding that they had been hijacked by some politicians to fuel their anti-government agenda.

The two leaders also dismissed the one-term campaign, adding that Ruto’s re-election campaign will be anchored on merit, development and a united national identity, not tribal arithmetic.

They insisted the 2027 contest will be about performance over personality, vowing to mobilise support across all regions on a platform of transformation and unity.

“When time comes, the issue of one-term will not be an election agenda,” Wandayi said.

"We will showcase our performance and progressive ideas to the people of Kenya."

Political observers see the comments as part of an emerging strategy by Ruto allies to frame the next election as a battle between a forward-looking administration and a retrogressive, tribal-based opposition.

The leaders also took on former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for using his US trip to talk ill of the country and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

“In the US, he (Gachagua) is even attacking Raila Odinga. I challenge him to come here in Migori and say those things he is saying about Raila,” Osoro said.

Gachagua, while addressing the Kenyan diaspora in Seattle on Friday, had openly claimed that Raila Odinga no longer commands the support he once did, even in his traditional strongholds.

He claimed that many communities that previously supported Raila have since defected and are now backing his camp.

“The Kamba nation, the Kisiis, the Luhyas and even the Maasai have left him,” Gachagua said.

INSTANT ANALYSIS

While Gachagua’s team has been framing the 2027 contest through their one-term call, President William Ruto's allies on the other hand have been out driving the narrative of a forward-looking administration versus a retrogressive, tribal-based opposition.