By Leo Odera Omolo In Kericho Town 23-04-2008
The war has broken out between two ODM Pentagon members, which is threatening to split the populist party in the middle.
The two, Raila Amolo Odinga, the Prime Minister and the Minister for agriculture William Samoei Ruto are said to be each pulling in different direction while undercutting each other. The scheme and manoeuvres currently going on , according to a source in Kericho would soon explode in the open. It is indeed, a move which is likely to hurt the Orange Democratic Movement party and tear it into pieces.
The same source, revealed that the discontent between the two cabinet members and supreme leaders of the ODM is caused by the alleged Ruto’s manoeuvre to upstage Raila in the South Rift region whose inhabitants are the Kipsigis, a sub-tribe of the larger
Kalenjin ethnic group.
Ruto, according to a source wanted to control the politics of both North and South Rift and being said he is actually a Kipsigis whose family migrated to Nandi decades ago, and later settled in Uasin Gishu district wanted to be the overall political supreme person in the entire Kalenjin region, a role which for many years was played by the retired president Daniel Arap Moi.
It has emerged that Ruto and Raila had drawn two parallel lists of the MPs from the Kipsigis region who each one of them wanted to be given ministerial positions in the grand coalition government. But sensing that Ruto’s list had excluded the veteran Kipsigis politician Kipkalya Kones, the ODM MP for Bomet,”Agwambo ignored Ruto’s list and substituted it with his own, which he eventually presented to President Mwai Kibaki.
In his list which he gave to Raila, the Eldoret North MP is said to have excluded Kones and recommended his close friend and political associate Charles Keter, the youthful Belgut MP for a full cabinet appointment. Keter, however, clinched the position of an Assistant Minister for Energy, while Raila’s other staunch supporter Ms Lorna Laboso{Sotik} landed the post of an Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Home Affairs..this move did not go down well with Ruto’s scheme, because he had also recommended that his other friend Franklin Bett be appointed to the cabinet, a recomendation which did not work as well.
It is said that Raila had acted after carefully consulting other Pentagon members, and on account of Kones consistency and unswerving loyality to the ODM, while Bett was seen not to be very principled. He had switched camps during last year’s general election. At one time, Bett was reported to have been shuttling in various splinter groups and camps within the ODM and had even joined Kalonzo Musyoka’s camp before the latter eventually broke the ranks with the original ODM-Kenya. That gave birth to a new ODM taken by Raila and ODM-Kenya going to Kalonzo. Charles Keter who Ruto wanted to be given a ministerial post, had also shuttled between Rraila Odinga and Gideon Moi of KANU while Kones remained steadfast in ODM.
Having lost in the political game of having his protégés appointed to the cabinet, Ruto, it is being alleged, had resorted to take action. He is said to be working on his new scheme in collaboration with the Buret MP Franklin Bett and Chepalungu MP Isaack Ruto, a one time cabinet Minister in the Moi’s last KANU regime. Ruto had joined the opposition briefly, but rejoined KANU after loosing his seat to John Koech in Chepalungu in 2002.
It has since emerged that it was Ruto who had instigated the Kipsigis MPs to protest against both President Mwai Kibaki and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga claiming that the two had short-changed their community in the new set of cabinet appoitments.
The whole hue and cry about their dissatisfaction with appointments of more Kipsigis MPs to the cabinet is the brainchild of Ruto.
The MPs who last weekend met at the tea Research foundation, located about 9 miles east of Kericho town said in their statement that regardless of the south Rift being a strong hold of ODM and the electorate, the only representation it got in the “bloated cabinet” were only three MPS Kones of Bomet [Roads}, Lorna Laboso and Charles Keter, assistant ministers for Home Affairs and Energy respectively, the latter posts having been rendered “valueless to the community.”
But Raila Odinga’s staunch supporter came out fire-spitting charging that the protesting Kipsigis MPs were a bunch of cowards. The former deputy CGS Lt. General {rtd}John Koech warned the disgruntled MPS that the Kipsigis community was not for sale, nor for power-bargain by individuals. The protest, he said, is of no consequences, because it was the same Ruto who had conspired with others during the last general election to ensure that only weak and political novices were issued with ODM nomination papers.
Gen Koech is the leading aspirant in the forthcoming by-election in ainamoi constituency to fill the seat left vacant by the late MP David Kimutai Too who was shot and killed in Eldoret by alleged police traffic officer.
He had contested the same seat in December, but lost in the much flawed party preliminary nomination to the late Too. He later joined Too and seriously campaigned for him to win. He was later moved to the pentagon by the party leaders to help in charting out the campaign strategies in the entire Kalenjin region, and at the same took the command of the Kipsigis land to ensure the party scooped all the eight parliamentary seats scattered in Kericho, Buret and Bomet districts.
It is now the wish of the Kipsigis elders that the General should be given direct nomination by the ODM head office to enable him to capture the Ainamoi, because he has remained steadfast in the party as opposed to other contestants who had jumped the ship and contested the election proper in other parties, but still they all lost to the late Too due to the euphoria and waves of Raila’s popularity within the Kipsigis community at the time of elections last year. He had been given the traditional Kipsigis name of Arap Mibei to signify his virtue as a Kalenjin elder.
But even with no date for the by-election in Ainamoi having been set, and the seat yet to be declared vacant by the Speaker of parliament more than a dozen of prospective aspirants have already declared their interests in the seat.
They include a Nairobi based businessman Paul Chirchir, another Nairobi businessman David Kitur, the younger brother of the slain M Benjamin Kiplangat Too, Ezekiel Ng’eny, Julius Kiplang’at Kirui,Paul Yaem, Joseph Arap Too, Mzee Ayub Chepkwony , a one time Assistant Minister for Housing and two time MP for the larger Belgut.
There is also a Mr Onesmus Lang’at the clerk to the County Council of Bureti,, who is an advocate of the high court, and allegedly a political protégé of Hon Franklin Bett, Andrew Maritim, Henry Rop,Samuel Rugut, Joel Rop,Joel Siele, the immediate former MP Noah N. Arap Too.
David Too, is said to be a protégé of the former Minister for Water Development in Moi’s last KANU regime Eng. Kipng’eno Arap Ng’eny who served as the first Ainamoi MP between 1997 and 2002. Ng’eny contested the same seat last December on an ODM ticket, but was badly beaten during the party’s nomination at the preliminary level. But the former Minister jumped the ship and contested the election proper on an UDM ticket, but still lost.
It is not clear whether Dr Paul Chepkwony of Moi University who also contested and lost the ODM ticket at the last December general election, but stood on another party’s ticket is also keen in the seat and would give it another shot.
But the waves of Gen Koech this time round would be an up-hill battle for the other contestants He is credited for having a very colourful development record on the ground. He is the patron and sponsor of Chepng’obop secondary school in Kapsaus Division and has donated a lot of money to several other social and economic projects in the constituency.
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African Press International – api
