NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 26 — Deputy President William Ruto will head to Nakuru on Wednesday in the company of his newly found allies — Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi and FORD Kenya’s Moses Wetangula — in what is set to rekindle memories of the 2012 Jubilee accord between the then URP leader and TNA’s Uhuru Kenyatta.
Kenyatta and Ruto unveiled the Jubilee coalition of TNA, URA and other smaller outfits at Nakuru’s Afraha Stadium on December 2, 2012 before facing off with Odinga’s Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD), which brought together Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka, FORD Kenya’s Wetangula among other political parties, in a presidential election held in March 2013.
The meeting at the Nakuru Show Ground will mark the first joint rally by the parties in an invent that could formally unveil the Uchumi Kwanza alliance, a Ruto-led coalition that will challenge ODM leader Raila Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja Movement unveiled on December 10, 2021.
Although the three are yet to make a formal announcement on an alliance, Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) has already endorsed a partnership with Mudavadi’s ANC and Wetangula’s FORD Kenya unveiled in what has come to be known in political circles as an earthquake.
Matuga MP Kassim Tandaza said the rally will cause an “earthquake” of a similar magnitude to the one witnessed at Bomas of Kenya.
“The rally in Nakuru will cause more earthquakes. It will be the same in Bungoma and Kirinyaga. The whole country will know Musalia and his team are ready to liberate this country,” Tandaza said.
Mudavadi hosted Ruto at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi during his party’s National Delegates Convention where he declared Odinga’s Azimio alliance was not an option.
“The ANC stand, which I am privileged to pronounce is that the specter called Azimio is not an option, when it comes to partnerships,” he stated.
Both Ruto and Mudavadi have termed the Sunday announcement at the Bomas of Kenya as a pacesetting pronouncement in subsequent meetings where they received defectors from other political formations.
Ruto’s for instance unveiled Starehe MP Charles Njagua who decamped from the governing Jubilee Party to UDA and Makueni Deputy Governor Adelina Mwau who quit Wiper and declined an invitation to join Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana’s Muungano Party.
The move prompted an immediate response from Kibwana who severed ties with Mwau saying Mwau “will walk alone”.
Kibwana, an Azimio-leaning Governor, has worked with Mwau for two consecutive terms having been elected on a joint ticket in March 2013.
They were re-elected in 2017 on a Wiper Party ticket after Kibwana left his Muungano Party to bolster former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s outfit.
Kibwana later differed with Musyoka and rejoined his Muungano Party.
Mudavadi also received a number of delegations including Ruto-allied leaders from western region where the ANC leader hails from who endorsed his partnership with Ruto. They included Mumias East MP Benjamin Washiali, elected on a Jubilee ticket, and former Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale (UDA).
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