Why Keter is no longer a lone ranger in Rift Valley

Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter            PHOTO/STANDARD

Kenya: He started off as a lone voice with colleagues and critics dismissing him as a political mercenary, a green horn and a rabble-rouser, but Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter is fast gaining support in Rift Valley from same critics who shouted him down.

The young lawmaker, who once told President Uhuru Kenyatta to his face at a rally in Eldoret that the Standard Gauge Railways project had elements of corruption, is slowly gaining popularity.

The recent move by Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru to move National Youth Service (NYS) former director Kiplimo Rugut and replaced him with Nelson Githinji has not only caused a political storm in the Kalenjin land, but also given Keter a reason to say ‘I told you’.

Waiguru’s move has given the firebrand politician another ammunition to hit at his Jubilee coalition over skewed appointments.

But his guns are not only trained at President Kenyatta and his TNA party but also close home at Deputy President William Ruto, who he accuses of watching as the Kalenjin community who ‘voted for Kenyatta because of his (Ruto’s) request’ gets a raw deal in the Jubilee government.

Keter has dared Ruto to address the issue and ensure the community is represented equally, in Government saying it is due to respect to him that they overwhelmingly voted for Uhuru.

“As our leader, he has climbed on the tree to get honey from the hive and suddenly got quiet as we keep waiting under the tree. We do not know if there is honey, if he has eaten it or has been stung by bees,” he symbolically said recently.

He added: “Maybe he has gotten the honey and has achieved sufficient sweetness that he does not want to tell us how it feels. We will therefore find our way to another hive.”

At a recent forum where over 30 MPs met to deliberate on the movement of Rugut, and the impending impeachement of the Devolution Cabinet Secretary, an MP was overheard telling his colleagues that they speak like Keter who was absent.

Notably, Keter’s restlessness against the Jubilee government seems to have infected a number of legislators from the Rift Valley region and the political bug could still bite more.

Waiguru’s move replacing Rugut with Githinji has been read by the Kalenjin leaders as a tribal affront likely to drive a wedge between URP and TNA regions.

From the storm he raised on the railway project to Rugut’s transfer, Keter has marked his first year in Parliament with vibrant politics.

But what is apparent is that his ‘bravery’ which was earlier seen as political suicide is bearing fruits, given the support he now enjoys from his colleagues.

Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi, who initially criticised the MP, now says Keter was after all speaking for the suppressed voices.

“The chicken are now coming home to roost. Keter was after all right. URP will not sit and have their leader William Ruto get frustrated and as Keter had stated, he was right. Our leader was unhappy in the alliance but had not found a proper ground to express it,” said Sudi.

Anti-Ruto bandwagon

Other previously quiet legislators have joined the Keter bandwagon and are now raising issues here and there. Chesumei MP Elijah Lagat is now calling for a fresh review of their pre-election agreement with TNA on grounds of having been shortchanged.

“From what is happening now, we want URP-TNA pre-election merger negated afresh so that URP can fully benefit in the alliance,” said Lagat.

Marakwet East MP David Kangogo agrees, saying  the review was necessary because some government officials were hell bent to break the pact through abuse of power.

“This agreement needs to be reviewed since as the URP camp, we feel our voice is unheard and we have been sidelined on most important matters,” he said.

Keiyo South MP Jackson Kiptanui said URP is fully part of the government and they cannot continue being treated unfairly since they had agreed on equal representation.

However, Marakwet West lawmaker William Kisang said they are plotting to push for amendment of the Constitution to allow the President to select Cabinet Secretaries only from among MPs, saying it will seal the leeway to biased appointments.

Keter claims Ruto is losing touch with the electorate in the Rift Valley region given his silence, especially on the Rugut’s saga.

“When I spoke I was silenced by the appointments of certain people who had been put in acting capacity for many years…I will speak out again if others are not confirmed, after all, I know they cannot support a Ruto presidency. Now, you can all see what they are doing to us,” Keter said at recent political rally in his constituency.

Of late, the first-time legislator has insisted Ruto has betrayed the community that rallied behind him last year by remaining tight lipped on the 50-50 sharing of government with TNA as had been agreed.

Keter claims to represent disgruntled Kalenjins in URP who are ‘growingly becoming discontented with the raw deal ther are getting from the Jubilee government’.

The 34-year-old lawmaker has threatened to rally his colleagues from the region to rebel against URP if the Deputy President does not intervene in the matter, saying the manner in which Rugut was transferred was demeaning of his stature in government.

Sources within URP note that Ruto has personally become uncomfortable with Keter’s tirades against the government.

“The DP must urgently summon all URP leaders from the region and reconcile the community if he intends to maintain the political support he enjoys in this region,” said Nakuru County URP Vice chairman Jonathan Rono.

Rono, a close political ally to Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto and a clergy with the Kenya Assemblies of God in Njoro, said Keter political star is rising because he articulates issues close to the hearts of the people in the region.

Some local leaders are also angry that Ruto has fallen out with the Bomet Governor and other lawmakers from the community who either took part in the formation of URP or financed the Jubilee campaigns in the region.

Kipsigis leaders have retreated and are now coalescing around the Bomet Governor, who has on his side his embattled Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony and Kuresoi North MP Zakayo Cheruiyot.