The move by President Ruto to open talks with Raila Odinga seems to have hit the last nail in the political coffins of ODM rebel MPs from Luo Nyanza. What this means is that President Ruto will no longer need them to checkmate Mr Raila Odinga and in such a situation the MPs will be rendered politically irrelevant and will have no option but to retreat
www.theweeklyvisionews.net
The eminent truce between President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga is likely to render the party’s political rebels useless. Analysts say that those politicians, who include Governors, Senators, Women Reps and MPs, were shocked when they watched President Ruto give a reconciliatory speech on TV. President William Ruto’s speech led Mr Odinga to call off what had been billed as the “mother of all demonstrations” which was to happen last Monday.
According to our sources, at one point they held an impromptu meeting where they claimed that President Ruto had betrayed them after giving a reconciliatory speech on TV. That President Ruto was now extending an olive branch to work with their enemy number one. Sources say the rebels have been left in an awkward position as their perceived role was to checkmate Mr Raila Odinga, therefore means that they have been left with nothing to do. President Ruto’s move caught many rebels with their pants down as the move was least expected.
Sources say even deputy Rigathi Gachagua could not believe that his boss had agreed to work with Raila Odinga barely minutes after chest thumping in Kakamega County that the only talk he was interested in was for Raila Odinga to retire from active politics. It is being speculated that Raila Odinga and William Ruto met somewhere in Narok County where the deal was brokered and what is now clear is that Mr Odinga consulted Uhuru Kenyatta, Martha Karua, Kalonzo Musyoka, Eugene Wamalwa and Jeremiah Kioni who gave him a green light to talk to the president.
It is not known for now who among the two leaders had initiated the move to talk. President Ruto on the other hand is said to have kept some of his lieutenants in the dark, they only saw it on TV like the rest of the Kenyans. Sources say even Mr Gachagua was not given full briefings on the alleged meeting because of his hardline stand.
President Ruto played a game similar to what Uhuru Kenyatta did during the 2018 handshake with Raila. The president kept his DP William Ruto in the dark until the handshake on the steps of Harambee House, history is just repeating itself. In Luo Nyanza, the anti-Raila politicians led by former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, former Migori Governor Okoth Obado, former Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma and several former and current MPs and Senators now claim that the president used them and is now ready to work with the man they have called unprintable names.
The move by President Ruto seems to have hit the last nail in their political coffins so to speak should the talks between Raila and Ruto lead to some formal arrangement of working together. What this means is that Ruto will no longer need them to checkmate Raila and in such a situation, they will be rendered politically irrelevant and will have no option but to retreat.
The big question however is, will they eat humble pie and seek forgiveness and reconciliation with Raila Odinga or will they stand their ground and remain defiant to Raila? Only time will tell.
