By Standard Team

Fireworks have erupted yet again between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Agriculture Minister William Ruto.

The political rivals continued shadowboxing over the Mau Forest evictions, which Ruto sees as betrayal of his community in Rift Valley Province despite voting overwhelmingly for Raila in the last election.

Their rivalry is also spiced up by the fact that Ruto, like Raila, wants to succeed President Kibaki in 2012. In the 2007 General Election, Ruto viciously supported the older man.

Agriculture Minister William Ruto and Prime Minister Raila Odinga at a past function. Photo: File/Standard

Between them is the populous Rift Valley swing vote, of which each wants the whole basket.

In Mombasa on Friday, Raila blasted Ruto over his outspokenness on Mau Forest evictions.

The Eldoret North MP left the coastal town with some Rift Valley leaders without bothering to let the PM know he was leaving. Their destination was Mau Forest where those fleeing eviction have pitched camps on the roadside, a crisis Ruto blames on Raila.

"If Raila is trying to seek international recognition by subjecting innocent Kenyans to inhumane conditions, he should forget support from Rift Valley in the next polls,’’ he said in Kuresoi constituency on Sunday.

Yesterday Ruto spoke similar language in a public function in Eldoret East constituency.

The statement by Raila that is believed to have incensed Ruto in Mombasa and promised punishment for troublesome or ineffective ministers, ran: "When the Government says people have to be relocated from Mau Forest you see a minister go to Mau to chest-thump about ‘My people’ … Why does that minister think they are his people more his than they are Government’s people?

"We are moving into the mid-term of our tenure as we begin the third year of the Grand Coalition Government. Kenyans want results," Raila told ministers.

Ruto and his political lieutenants appear to have read Raila’s statement as an attack on himself and yesterday they said as much.

Interestingly, Ruto revealed that while in Mombasa he met President Kibaki and Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta to discuss the plight of the Mau settlers who have moved before they were either compensated or given alternative settlement as promised.

Between Raila and Ruto also are differences of opinion on how to deal with suspects of post-election violence , whether to form a local tribunal or hand them over to The Hague.

Ruto walked out of the Mombasa retreat with Cabinet ministers Franklin Bett, Assistant ministers Linah Kilimo and Mrs Beatrice Kones. They were joined in Mau by eight other MPs.

The MPs allied to Ruto were categorical they would not support the ODM leader for Presidency in the

next elections.

Kuresoi MP Zakayo Cheruiyot said: "It is not a secret anymore, Kalenjins are not going to support Raila. We are through with him and his machinations."

"We shall back Ruto for Presidency in 2012 as a region and it will not matter whether he wins or not. After all, Kalonzo is the Vice-President yet he did not win in the last elections," he added.

Ruto, on his part, reiterated he would be contesting for the Presidency. It is understood that Ruto did not bother to inform Raila of his trip to the region with other Cabinet ministers from the Province but put Kibaki in picture.

Ruto publicly stated he met Kibaki and Uhuru, who is the Finance minister, to address the plight of Mau settlers.

He revealed he had impressed upon Kibaki and Raila to urgently set aside funds for the resettlement of the evicted families who have no shelter, food, medicine and clothing.

"The President and the Finance Minister have agreed to set aside funds for your resettlement,’’ he told them.

It is also understood the remark by Raila in Mombasa did not go well with Rift leaders, especially the line were receding to their tribal cocoons claiming their communities were being harassed.

"Some of you are going out to areas like Mau and saying your communities are being harassed. It is very unfortunate and it should stop,’’ Raila warned.

A source told The Standard: "The ministers from Rift Valley were annoyed that Raila had made the Mau issue a subject of the retreat in a bad light."

While in Mau, Ruto, his Cabinet colleagues and MPs did not hide the fact that there was a rift between them and the PM.

Ruto said: "I am shocked that you have been kicked out, dumped on the roadside yet the Cabinet resolved that you will be compensated and resettled to pave way for rehabilitation of the forest."

He added: "Unless there was another Cabinet meeting that deliberated on the issue of eviction which I did not attend, I can tell you for sure what has been implemented following the

PM’s directive was not what was resolved." The Rift MPs present were: Mr Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu), Mr Lucas Kigen (Rongai), Mr Sammy Mwaita (Baringo Central), and Dr Joyce Laboso (Sotik), Mr Zakayo Cheruiyot (Kuresoi), Mr Joshua Kuttuny (Cherangany), Mr Moses Lessonet (Eldama Ravine) and Mr Benjamin Langat (Ainamoi).

Bett said the families should not move out of the forest unless the government compensated them and provided transport to new settlement schemes.

"We are giving the Government 14 days within which to sort out the problem failure to which we will return the evicted families to the forest," Bett warned.

Kilimo asked: "Why is it that as Rift Valley leaders when we champion for the right of our people we are branded tribalists?"

Her attack on Raila was more stinging when she said: "Retired President Moi had told us not to trust Raila yet we did not take him seriously. Now we are feeling the heat of supporting him in the last General Election."

Mrs Kones said the government was employing double standards by resettling Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) while creating another crisis by pushing people out of their farms. Kuttuny said he had all along, even in the run up to the last General Election, been apprehensive about Raila and had told fellow MPs so.

"I told this guys here Raila was not the right candidate for Presidency but they insisted we back him. Look at his now, he has turned against the people who supported him almost to a man," Kuttuny lamented.

He then asked: "Why can’t Raila do to the Mau residents what he did for Kibera residents by providing them shelter and transport to their new homes?"

—Story by by Vitalis Kimutai and Phillip Ruto