NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 3 — Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, once a vocal critic of Deputy President William Ruto, has joined the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
Keter decamped from the ruling Jubilee Party to join the Ruto-led party on whose ticket he will seek to defend his seat in the August 9 General Election.
He was received at the party headquarters in Nairobi by Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua, a staunch Ruto ally.
Speaking after being welcomed to the party, Keter vowed to make promote Ruto’s presidential bid to ensure he is crowned the country’s fifth President in August.
“We are now ready to soldier on the 2022 presidential bid and move to all counties of Kenya to seek and solicit more votes to make my brother William Samoei Ruto the fifth president of Kenya,” he added.
Keter called for tolerance among rival political camps.
“There should be no bitterness or hate where the truth and righteousness exist. Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. My appeal to the people of Kenya is to be self-driven guided by law to tolerate political ideologies without hate,” he said.
Gachagua on his part described Keter’s move as a confirmation of the continued mass exodus from the ruling Jubilee Party whose popularity has declined to a paltry 4 per cent according to recent studies.
“At the Hustler Center, this afternoon I have welcomed the Hon. Alfred Keter, Nandi Hills Member of Parliament to the Party of the moment and the future. The mass exodus from Jubilee to UDA continues,” he said.
Keter’s move to join UDA is seen as a calculated move to appeal to his constituents who have largely remained loyal to Ruto.
In months leading to his defection, and at the height of internal wrangles within the ruling Jubilee Party that saw Ruto-allied lawmakers de-whipped from parliamentary committees, Keter uncharacteristically slowed incessant attacks on Ruto who he often described as corrupt and unsuitable to lead.
