Uhuru succession widens rift between Kalenjin camps

 Eleven Rift Valley MPs yesterday accused their colleagues of being used to weaken DP William Ruto’s 2022 game plan.

On Saturday, Alfred Keter (Nandi Hills), Joshua Kuttuny (Cherengany) and Silas Tiren (Moiben) demanded that Ruto be probed over the maize and subsidised fertiliser crises. This sparked protests among other Kalenjin lawmakers who accused them of being “cheap hired mercenaries”.

Caleb Kositany (Soy), Robert Pukose (Endebess), Aaron Cheruiyot (Kericho) and others, said Keter, Kuttuny and Tiren are out to derail the DP’s presidential ambitions.

“The three politicians are known brokers. In fact, one of them, Alfred Keter, who fashions himself as a crusader of the oppressed, is facing numerous forgery and theft cases amounting to hundreds of millions of shillings,” Kositany said.

“The three dimwits, despite being MPs, have not authored any single solution to help farmers. We know political distractors of the DP have failed to contain him.”

Read: Rift MPs now want Ruto probed over maize crisis

More: No longer at ease: Rifts widen in Jubilee camp as Ruto eyes polls

 He said the trio roam from place to place in an attempt to “slow Ruto at home to create an impression that he’s having a problem — that’s further from the truth”. They said the three pretend to be messiahs for the farmers, yet they don’t advocate their issues in Parliament.

In response, however, Keter and Kutuny dismissed the claims, saying they are only focussed on issues raised by farmers and are not used by Ruto’s opponents.

They demanded that Ruto personally respond to the “weighty maize scandal allegations”.

“The DP himself needs to come out and pronounce himself on this grave matter affecting our farmers. MPs who called us names and yet they survive on hand-outs can’t tell poor farmers anything,” Kutuny said.

“It’s shame that the leaders who were elected to Parliament by farmers have now turned their backs on them. We have no time for people who only speak to massage the ego of their master.”

Keter said they raised genuine concerns and not petty allegations. “It’s shocking. Our colleagues are attacking us, instead of coming up with a response. If we’re wrong, they should prove it,” he said.

More: Gideon Moi ‘too small’ to threaten Ruto’s 2022 bid – allies

Click here for
the latest political news