Ruto starts Coast tour to drum up support ahead of 2022 duel
Deputy President William Ruto will Thursday begin a three-day campaign blitz of the Coast as ODM boss Raila Odinga’s allies scheme to keep Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi in their fold.
The DP will tour Kwale, Kilifi and Mombasa counties in a 72-hour packed programme. He has sustained a charm offensive to dislodge Raila from the grip of the critical region. Raila’s ODM has enjoyed massive support from the region since the 2007 elections.
Ruto is expected to commission development projects undertaken by allied lawmakers in the three counties and raise money for several beneficiaries.
The DP is expected to criticise and oppose the Building Bridges Initiative process to amend the Constitution. Already, the Siaya assembly has passed the Bill and others have started deliberating on it. It needs to be passed by 24 assemblies to go the referendum to be held by the electoral commission by June.
The DP will be hosted by MPs Khatib Mwashetani (Lunga Lunga), Benjamin Tayari (Kinango), Mohammed Ali (Nyali), Aisha Jumwa (Malindi) and former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar.
Mwashetani told the Star that the DP will be in the region as part of his nationwide programme to empower jobless Kenyans and small businesses.
“The Deputy President will be leading the hustler nation programme in the counties of Kwale, Kilifi and Mombasa and also interact with his supporters and launch projects,” Mwashetani said.
Interior CS Fred Matiang’i who chairs the National National Development Implementation and Communication Committee now oversees, and launches, state projects.
Even as Ruto begins his campaign tours of the three coastal counties, Raila’s allies in the region are working on a scheme to keep Kingi and frustrate Ruto’s forays.
Kingi, a regional political stalwart, has been a crucial ally of Raila but his recent agitation for the region to chart its own path with a regional party has rattled the ODM boss’ camp.
The Star has established that even as Ruto pitches camp at the Coast from Thursday to market his hustler nation, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and pro-Raila forces are not sitting pretty.
Raila’s men are working overtime to dissuade Kingi from forming a Coast party. Instead, they want him to help consolidate the region under ODM ahead of the next year’s general election.
