ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna has said Deputy President William Ruto is desperate and has now resorted to using tactics of opposition to get sympathy support ahead of his titanic battle for the presidency with Raila Odinga.
Speaking on Thursday, November 11, at the Kikuyu council of elder’s headquarters in Ruaka, Kiambaa sub-county, Sifuna termed Ruto as a desperate presidential opponent who has sensed defeat and has already started behaving like an opposition leader.
“Right now they (William Ruto and his allies) have started using tactics of opposition,” said Sifuna.
Sifuna further warned supporters of the ODM party and the party leader Raila Odinga not to give in to provocation to violence from hustler nation leaders and supporters.
Sifuna who was reacting to the recent remarks by the deputy president who said that the former Prime Minister incited Kondele youths to pelt stones at his motorcade said the ODM party is peaceful and wants a peaceful electioneering period.
He said William Ruto intentionally angered Kondele youths by evenly dishing out handouts so that he can shift the blame to Raila, a technical move synonymous with opposition leaders.
“Yesterday the deputy president entered Kisumu and youths were given money unevenly. The youths started to fight for that money and now they are saying that it is ODM and it is Raila who threw stones at them,” said Sifuna.
Prior to William Ruto’s Nyanza visit, Saboti MP Caleb Hamisi sarcastically pleaded with ODM supporters to come out in large numbers to officially hand over the opposition instruments to William Ruto.
“If I were Nyanza people I would come out in large numbers when (Deputy President William) Ruto visits Kisumu and Migori just to cheer on the next person who will, after 2022, take over the opposition role that they have played for decades. Call it handover ceremony,” Hamisi said.
