Even as the war of words between William Ruto’s Tanga-tanga team and Raila Odinga’s brigade continues to escalate, the ODM party has told off the Tanga-tanga team, associating their current bitter reactions with one of their failed plans.
Through its twitter page, the party claimed that Ruto and his team were not genuine in their calls to have those who were allegedly involved in Kibra violence arrested.
Instead, the party claimed that Tanga-tanga team was just getting rid of their frustrations after plans to rig Kibra vote failed.
According to ODM, Ruto’s team had put all the structures to rig Kibra vote “just like they have been rigging” but their plans were subverted by Kibra voters who were keen to guard their votes.
Some of the party’s MPs also alleged that the “noise being made over the by-election” is a well-calculated scheme by Ruto to set ground to reject the BBI report, which is expected to be handed over to President Uhuru Kenyatta soon.
The party promised that it was going to adapt the same method of guarding their votes even in the next general elections.
“They had planned to RIG the Kibra by-election just like they have been rigging. We were smarter. We beat them in their own GAME. They are bitter. So bitter than even the garden pepper. Kenyans are no longer going to allow their WILL to be SUBVERTED by power-hungry person(s),” read one of ODM’s tweeter post.
William Ruto’s side has been accusing ODM party of employing violence during the voting day to scare away Macdonald Mariga’s supporters.
Tangatanga should stop juvenile/infantile tirades over the just concluded Kibra by-election. Dragging the names of CS @FredMatiangi & his PS @Karanjakibicho into their agony of losing the by-election does and cannot wash. ODM won clean. Their bad manners were thwarted by Kibrans.
— The ODM Party (@TheODMparty) November 13, 2019
Ruto has been challenging Odinga to come out and denounce the violence publicly if indeed he was genuine about the handshake between him and P[resident Uhuru Kenyatta in 2018.
“Tinga, that we discuss BBI, meant to sort out election violence when you have not only refused to renounce terror but continue to brazenly celebrate & perpetuate it, is to take kenyans for fools! My friend,kuna upungufu mkubwa wa wajinga.When will you RENOUNCE violence PUBLICLY??” posed Ruto on Tuesday.
MPs allied to Ruto have also dragged Interior CS Fred Matiang’i and his Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho into the heated Kibra by-election politics.
The MPs led by Kikuyu MP, Kimani Ichungwa, have claimed that Matiang’i and Kibicho held a meeting with Mr Odinga on the eve of the by-election, where the issue of the violence was discussed.
They argued that the two instructed security officers not to offer any protection to the Tanga-tanga team as witnessed in the massive harassment some of the leaders faced during the polling day.
Among the leaders who found themselves at the center of the fracas included Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa, Kapseret’s Oscar Sudi, and former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale.