ODM leader Raila Odinga has dismissed claims that he sponsored youths to stone William Ruto’s rally at Jacaranda grounds.
On Sunday, January 16, rowdy youths temporarily disrupted deputy president William Ruto’s rally where they pelted the presidential hopeful with stones before the riot police swiftly intervened to restore order.
When the order was restored, William Ruto then blamed the former Prime minister Raila Odinga for sponsoring youths to disrupt his rally.
But in a statement on Sunday, January 16, by his spokesperson Dennis Onyango, Raila Odinga said the former Agriculture minister was the one behind the disruption of his own rally.
According to the opposition chief, the Jacaranda violence was sponsored by William Ruto himself to provoke war in his Rift Valley backyard and cause the eviction of non-Kalenjins.
“The strange rage expressed by Deputy President William against Raila Odinga this afternoon should be easy to understand,
“Ruto is simply setting the stage for the removal of Madoadoa from the Rift Valley and, if need be, start a war in the Rift Valley. It is not beyond Ruto to sponsor the disruption of his own rally so that he can have an excuse to start ethnic cleansing back at home,” Raila Odinga said.
The ODM leader further faulted his bitter rival for paying the youths to attend his political meeting, a move he said could have played a bigger role in causing the chaos.
He opined that the deputy president could have run out of cash, something that could have angered the youths who did not receive their share.
“It also ought to be understood that the youths were being paid to attend the Jacaranda rally today. Either Ruto ran out of money or the people he trusted with the money did not pay all the youths,” he added.
