ODM seeks to reclaim Rift Valley bloc

By Vincent Bartoo

Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s allies have launched a new strategy to reach out to voters in Rift Valley in a bid to woo them to support the premier’s presidential bid.

MPs allied to the PM have started Town Hall meetings in the region, in a heart to heart mission to persuade locals to regain their trust in the PM.
The initiative is spearheaded by Sports minister Ababu Namwamba and Kipkelion MP Magarer Langat.
The meetings come as the PM is set to traverse the North Rift region this week.  Namwamba and Langat started the Town Hall meetings in Eldoret by holding talks with opinion, political and religious leaders.

The meeting held in Eldoret last week also saw members of other political parties attend.

The two MPs said the strategy aims at changing negative perceptions residents in Rift Valley have about the PM.

Lose ground

“He has in the past been vilified unfairly and condemned without a chance to be heard. We want to try and be his defence attorneys politically in this region,” said Namwamba.

He cited the Mau Forest evictions and International Criminal Court (ICC) case facing, among others, Eldoret North MP William Ruto as issues that have made PM lose ground in the region.

Namwamba said the PM has been on the receiving end yet he was spearheading a Cabinet decision.
“The proposal to evict Mau evictees came as a Cabinet memorandum from the Ministry of Environment. The PM was not in-charge of the ministry then,” he added.
Namwamba said the Cabinet unanimously consented to the memorandum and the PM’s office was given responsibility to spearhead the evictions and resettlement.
“Now that I sit in Cabinet, I know how it went. No one, including Ruto, who was in Cabinet then, opposed it. But he later started making unfair political capital out of it,” he said.
Namwamba further added that the PM was against the post-election cases being referred to ICC.
“You remember they had to come to Parliament with the President to make the case for a local process, but MPs shot it down,” he said.
The MP further said after the cases were taken to The Hague, the PM through his party ODM hired lawyers to defend Ruto and Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey.

“Kosgey agreed to have our lawyers on his defence team but you know Ruto flatly refused and demonised us over the gesture,” added Namwamba.

Langat asked residents in the region to separate the truth from propaganda claiming they had been misled for individual selfish gains. “The reason we are coming to talk to you at length about these issues is to try and open your eyes to know the truth,” said Magarer.

He announced that they would continue with Town Hall meetings, which next head to Kericho and Bomet counties before they join the PM in his campaigns in the North Rift this Friday. Langat said contrary to the popular belief that the PM had lost 100 per cent support in Rift Valley, residents still had a soft spot for him.

“It is just that lies about him have been told repeatedly they now appear like the truth. But this is what to change to have our people regain their initial trust on the PM,” he added.

Friends of Raila Chairman Micah Kigen said the PM should not seek Rift Valley support from a point of weakness.

“Those claiming the whole of Rift Valley is under lock and key are wishful thinkers. They still think voters there can be shepherded like sheep,” he said.

Kigen added: “The PM should know that he still has loyal supporters and he should not be boxed into a corner when entering any alliance as far as Rift Valley is concerned.”

Opposing move

The MPs latest initiative to change perceptions about Raila in the Rift comes in the wake of the PM’s impending visit to the North Rift to test political waters as alliances take centre-stage

The region has been awash with political anxiety especially after Eldoret North MP William Ruto started the process of forming pre-election alliances.

His secret meeting with the PM raised political eyebrows.
Ruto later announced he had settled on Deputy Prime Uhuru Kenyatta.

The announcement has been met with criticism by his supporters in the Rift who called radio stations opposing the move.
Ruto’s decision to join forces with Uhuru was also not lost on the PM, with his spokesman Dennis Onyango saying it was clear the Eldoret North MP had other agenda driving his political moves. The PM’s Presidential Campaign Secretariat chairman Eliud Owalo said, “there were no fundamental differences between Raila and Ruto. Whatever their differences were, they are not insurmountable.”

Said Onyango: “Those issues he used to complain about the PM, he does not speak about them anymore. It is now clear that it was not about Raila.”
He cited the stalled Mau Resettlement Programme, which he said was delayed after Treasury dragged its feet in
releasing funds meant to purchase alternative land for the evictees.

“Now the Mau was restored, rivers in Rift Valley have clean water and the evictees are being resettled. Who are the beneficiaries? Is it the PM? Posed Onyango. 

He added: “The involvement of the PM in the evictions was in good faith as he did not want the evictions to be brutal and the evictees forgotten as is usually the case with such squatters.”