Kenya’s opposition party ODM now wants President Uhuru Kenyatta to kick his deputy William Ruto out of the ruling Jubilee party following the embarrassing loss in the Kiambaa by-election.
The opposition party, which currently enjoys a closer working relationship with the president, belive it was wrong for Uhuru’s deputy to support a rival candidate in the by-election.
While Ruto is technically still a Jubilee party member and even the party’s deputy leader, his heart is in United Democratic Alliance (UDA) a party through which the former agriculture minister has been fielding candidates against the Jubilee party.
“I urge President Uhuru to initiate plans to remove him (deputy president) from the party following the results in Kiambaa. The deputy president crossed the line when he chose to compete against his boss in his own backyard,” said Junet Mohamed who is the leader of minority in the National Assembly.
Speaking in Tana River on Monday, July 19 in the present the opposition party boss Raila Odinga, Junet said ordinarily, it is William Ruto’s responsibility to support his boss, Uhuru.
It is worth noting the opposition party backed out of a planned impeachment motion against William Ruto in early 2021 with the ODM’s secretary general Edwin Siufna saying William Ruto ought to resign voluntarily for falling out with his boss.
The much-talked-about Kiambaa by-election had several candidates but the race had narrowed down to a Jubilee party candidate and United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate.
While William Ruto never appeared in the campaigns, his footsoldiers who also shifted allegiance from Jubilee did much of the work with Ruto operating from the background.
The UDA candidate emerged the winner by a very narrow margin and the Jubilee party has threatened to challenge the results alleging foul play by electoral body IEBC.
It is not the first time a candidate linked to William Ruto trounced a Jubilee party candidate.
In Juja constituency by-election, the Jubilee party lost terribly to a People’s Empowerment Party belonging to Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria.
Now Moses Kuria’s party has a close working relationship with the United Democratic party which is technically Ruto’s party as he has said he will use it t vie for the presidency.
The same was replicated in Rurii ward by-election where a UDA candidate trounced a Jubilee party candidate in what many have come to believe is enough evidence of Jubilee’s dwindling fortunes.
