I'm ready to face off with Ruto in 2027, Owalo says

Former ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo says he is not President William Ruto’s project in Nyanza. [File, Standard]

Former ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has said he is ready to square it out with President William Ruto in the 2027 presidential elections.

Speaking during an interview on a Kalenjin vernacular radio station on Wednesday, Owalo, who quit as Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Performance and Delivery Management said he was not President Ruto’s project in Nyanza.

“I am not a William Ruto project. I worked with him at a time when leaders from my region were in the Azimio outfit which had President Uhuru Kenyatta and the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga,” he said.

The former Cabinet Secretary vowed to bring sanity to the presidential contest by disrupting what he termed as ethnic mobilisation of voters in the run-up to elections.

 “I will be the presidential candidate who doesn’t have a tribal stronghold,” he said.

Owalo said that he does not regret walking out of the Kenya Kwanza administration to run against Ruto.

“I walked out of Ruto’s administration but I will not walk out of Kenyans. I am a risk taker and I supported him and made it public. Later I joined his government and I am now out and ready to face him for the Presidency,” Owalo added.