By Anderson Ojwang
President William Ruto in Kisumu on Sunday, during a meeting with grassroots leaders, exuded and expressed confidence of winning the 2027 presidential elections, terming the opposition as clueless and having no agenda.
While Ruto was exuding confidence of victory, DCP party leader Rigathi Gachagua, speaking from the USA, claimed of several failed attempts by President Ruto to divide and woo some of the leaders to his fold.
Gachagua said Ruto has repeatedly sent emissaries to Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka and Jubilee Deputy Party Leader Dr Fred Matiang’i to join him.
“Ruto has tried severally to woo Kalonzo and Matiang’i to his fold through coercion and financial promises. But this has miserably failed in his attempts,” he said.
Confidence
But Ruto, speaking in Kisumu, said the opposition was clueless, planless and had no agenda for the country and was at the brink of disintegration.
“I am confident of winning this election. The opposition is clueless and the outfit will soon disintegrate. They have no agenda,” he said.
Ruto told his supporters not to be worried about the opposition as he will easily whitewash them at the next year’s General Elections.
“Those people, a bunch of people who have no agenda, vision, clueless people, and planless. They pose the biggest threat to the management of the affairs of the Republic and development of Kenya.
“We want to judge every leader and political formation by their vision, plan and agenda track record.
“That is why we are facing the election next year with a lot of confidence.
“I want to request you people of Nyanza let us collaborate with me as head to the elections,” he said.
Clueless
Disintegrating
President Ruto dismissed the opposition as a confused group with no agenda and was disintegrating.
**“Do not be worried. Those people we are in competition with are below the par in politics.
“Listen, they started with united opposition and they failed to agree and now they call themselves alternative government,”** he said.
He said the opposition has failed to agree, unite and lacks any agenda for the country.
“In alternative government they call alternative ideas, agenda, programme. They don’t have and offer alternative anything. That have also disintegrated,” he said.
He said the only agenda the opposition has was sloganeering of Wantam and Ruto must go.
“Now they only rely on the slogan of Wantam, Ruto must go and Kasongo. They are down politically. They have no agenda, plan and manifesto. Those Linda sponsor or Linda what have nothing to offer,” he said.
Ruto appealed to the residents of Nyanza to work and collaborate with him and avoid the opposition, whose only agenda was sloganeering.
Infiltrated and failed attempts
Gachagua said for the past one year, the biggest challenge the opposition has had was the infiltration by President Ruto.
“The challenge we are having today is the infiltration by Ruto and trying to divide the united opposition. He has tried for a fact. For the last one year he has been trying to divide the opposition and creating conflict among ourselves,” he said.
He claimed that Ruto has tried coercion and financial gains to woo the opposition, but all have failed.
“Ruto has been offering people money, threatening them with cases and I can assure you all of us have been very strong and committed to the people of Kenya,” he claimed.
Matiang’i
He praised Matiang’i for remaining steadfast and declining the offers and the pressure from Ruto.
“Give it to him, Dr Matiang’i. They have targeted him, and they have sent a senior government officer to talk to him. He shared with us and said No,” he said.
He said Ruto was also trying to use National Assembly Minority Leader Junet Mohammed to woo Matiang’i to his fold.
“They sent Junet Mohammed and he has been assuring Ruto that he can bring Matiang’i. Matiang’i is so clear that he cannot betray the people of Kenya. Many times when I have learnt of what they are planning, I tell him and he confirms I was right,” he said.
Recently, Matiang’i, Junet and Kisii Governor Simba Arati were spotted at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with the opposition leaders sharing the photo at the airport, which left Kenyans wondering whether the Jubilee leader was about to cross to the government.
“He is steadfast. They even tried to bring an issue of the Ruaraka land and to threaten him that they could prosecute him.
“He refused to be intimidated because he never committed any crime,” he said.
Kalonzo
Gachagua praised Kalonzo for his stand and having a position and dismissed the narrative that he was a watermelon in the opposition.
“Dr Kalonzo, I want to honour him. Previously there was a narrative that he was watermelon and people believed it and even me.
“But since I started working with Kalonzo, that narrative is false. If there is a man with stand, it is Kalonzo. If you want to know, every five years, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga would promise to support him but he didn’t but he still stuck with Raila,” he said.
He said Ruto has severally tried to persuade Kalonzo to his side but failed miserably.
“They have tried to send people to Kalonzo with money but he has declined. He is standing with people of Kenya.
“They have tried to give him all manner of offers,” he said.
He said the opposition have developed and adopted an open and honest policy of transparency among themselves.
“Good thing so that we don’t suspect each other. Any time he is approached he tells us and this has enabled us to remain united,” he said.
Attack
Kalonzo recently, during a meeting with Linda Mwananchi, opened up over what he termed as an attack from President Ruto.
Kalonzo admitted at the press conference that he was under a terrible attack by President Ruto and his teams, claiming that he was joining the government.
“I am thrilled because you have also come to Linda Kalonzo. Because I am under attack, a terrible attack that I met William Ruto.
“You have come to Linda my name and through God I have Linda my name, constitution and our pride. I cannot make that terrible mistake,” he said.
He dismissed claims that he had met with President Ruto in State House and that the President’s bloggers were churning out fake news.
“The social media platforms was awash with me joining Ruto. I was in Zanzibar after having meeting with editors. Yesterday I took a boat from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam and back to Nairobi,” he said.
The social media has been awash with video clips of Kalonzo in State House meeting President Ruto and that he was about to join the government.
Panicked
Kalonzo said President Ruto had panicked by the resurgence of the opposition and defections from UDA to former Deputy President Gachagua’s DCP and Linda Mwananchi.
“I am happy you reached out to me, kindly also engage other colleagues so that as we enter in August, the election year are united. We have no time Ruto and his team panicked,” he said.
