Political analyst Herman Many0ra has highlighted Deputy President William Ruto’s hard task of climbing Mt Kenya and successfully getting votes from the region to boost his 2022 presidential ambition.
According to Manyora, William Ruto’s hope of clinching the presidency is highly dependent on whether or not he succeeds to get over 90% of the Kikuyu votes.
He holds that Ruto needs the central region more than Raila Odinga because the numbers he has in other parts of Kenya can not guarantee him the presidency.
“Ruto’s presidential bid hangs on the numbers on the mountain, you chip away 30% and he is gone,
“The votes that Ruto will get elsewhere will not be sufficient if he loses the mountain. Therefore losing the mountain for him,” Herman Manyora said.
While explaining how Ruto has a tough task in the mountain, Manyora said that the 7 million voters in Mt Kenya region will not turn out in 2022 as they did in the 2013 and 2017 General Election.
“The Mt Kenya votes must turn out in the numbers that it did in 2017 (2013). Do you think they will do that without a candidate of their own on the ticket?” Manyora posed insinuating the Jubilee party got overwhelming support in Mt Kenya due to their son (Uhuru) being the presidential candidate.
The political analyst explained that Raila Odinga knows how desperate Ruto is for Kikuyu votes, hence the latest move to get the attention of the mountain just so he reduces what Ruto can get from there.
“Raila is not after votes in Mt Kenya, he just wants to deny William Ruto the chance to get maximum votes there. He does not need all the votes from Mt Kenya, he just needs 10%. He needs just to destabilize votes from Mt Kenya,” he said.
Additionally, Herman Manyora gave his insights on the calls for Uhuru Kenyatta to hit the ground in Mt Kenya region to campaign for Raila Odinga.
This, he said is not necessary for Uhuru, but still Raila Odinga will please the Kikuyu voters.
“Uhuru does not need to take Raila there, he just needs to set things in motion, get the machinery rolling, activate networks and let the mountain know that his preferred successor is Raila Odinga.”
