NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 4 — Deputy President William Ruto is back on the campaign trail for the first time since Monday when he left the country for Dubai and left Amani National Congress party leader Musalia Mudavadi and his Ford Kenya counterpart Moses Wetangula to take charge of the Kenya Kwanza Alliance tour.
Speaking during a series of rallies lined up to popularize the new alliance in Voi, Deputy President stated that the onslaught through election law amendments is a choreographed attempt to install a puppet on the Kenyan electorates.
“The dark forces, the evil forces that are driving this ‘Kitendawili project’ are the same ones who are behind these faceless people who have made this law that everybody now is disowning,” he said.
Mudavadi on his part challenged the government through House Majority Leader Amos Kimunya to reveal the author of the controversial Bill after Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju disowned it and said the cabinet had sanctioned it.
“If it was the intention of the Cabinet to bring this law, don’t you think that Ruto by virtue of being the DP would have known? This tells us that we are being led by a dysfunctional cabinet,” Mudavadi remarked.
“Who is the real owner of this mongerel of the law, because even Project Azimio itself through Junet have disowned it. Can you imagine that even the person who was supposed to be the chief beneficiary of this scheme has rejected it and said even if there was a plot to manipulate the election in his favour they would rather do it in another manner,” the ANC leader said.
The Kenya Kwanza leaders were referring to radical proposals to amend the election laws to pave the way for both manual and electronic transmission of presidential results in the August 9 general elections.
The controversial Bill might however be headed for a downfall after different political parties that hold numerical strength in the National Assembly poked holes into the legislative proposal.
Suna East MP Junet Mohammed, who doubles up as the Minority Whip in the National Assembly, insisted that the amendments to electoral laws are retrogressive and cannot be adopted in the conduct of the General Election in August even as the ruling Jubilee Party denied a role in the proposed changes.
The Bill sponsored by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), seeks to have alternative methods to be deployed to relay results during the August 9 polls.
It further seeks to allow for manual identification of voters at polling stations sparking a protest over an alleged rigging plot.
Electronic identification of voters was introduced in the Election Act to deter manipulation of voter turnout and lock out “dead voters” from the ballot.
