Why Ruto’s Mandera rhetoric targeted Raila

Deputy President William Ruto in Mandera County on March 23, 2019.

Deputy President William Ruto accused unnamed opposition figures of sowing discord in Jubilee Party while speaking at fundraiser in Mandera. 

“Going forward, we believe the only way to have our country united is by dealing away with politics of hatred and tribe and having a national party that brings on board every Kenyan,” he said.

The DP also urged the opposition to bring to an end the culture of forming parties for political expediency. 

“We cannot unite a nation without ensuring that we eliminate politics of ethnicity and politics of broken parties,” he said.

Jubilee Party has recently been rocked by internal wrangles over succession politics and ongoing war on corruption. 

On succession politics, the storm was sparked by former Jubilee Party vice-chairman David Murathe who opposed Mr Ruto’s bid for the presidency in 2022 General Election.

While Mr Murathe’s opinion received support from some quarters, it is the war on corruption that threatened to tear the party apart. Close allies of Mr Ruto have claimed the so-called anti-graft war has been engineered to stop his bid for the presidency. 

The latest indication that party wrangles are far from over came on Thursday night, when President Uhuru Kenyatta said no one will be spared in the anti-corruption war, whether that person is his brother, sister or his closest political ally.

A section of Kenyans interpreted the ‘closest political ally’ was directed at Mr Ruto and his close associates, who have previously protested the anti-graft drive has been targeting members of a particular community.

This is after investigations into the procurement of several dams in the Rift Valley roped in several Cabinet Secretaries with Treasury mandarin Henry Rotich among those grilled by detectives.

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