Deputy President William Ruto has rolled out a new campaign strategy to conquer “enemy territory” and is now aggressively focusing on regions outside Mt Kenya.
Over the last few weeks, Ruto has pitched tent in other areas outside President Uhuru Kenyatta’s backyard in what political analysts say is due to the slippery nature of the Mt Kenya voting bloc.
A previous analysis by the Star showed that for every three Ruto meetings, one was with a delegation from Mt Kenya.
However, over the past one month, Ruto has been to Mt Kenya only twice. In addition, he has on three separate occasions hosted delegations from Murang’a, Kiambu and Kirinyaga.
Ruto has however expanded his tentacles to other regions, combing through the six coastal counties for six days.
He has also been to Kakamega, Busia, Narok, Kajiado, Isiolo and Makueni.
Yesterday, Ruto crisscrossed several villages in Makueni, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka’s backyard.
The DP said he is reaching out to all Kenyans to build a national party that will form the next government.
This weekend through to next week, Ruto will pitch camp in Kajiado, Kiambu, Nyamira and conclude the week in Bungoma county.
Raila Odinga, Ruto’s most formidable competitor, has also been scouring for votes throughout the country but has intensified his vote hunt in Mt Kenya, getting the critical backing of governors.
Nyandarua Woman Representative Faith Gitau, an ally of the DP, told the Star they want to win the presidential race with a convincing majority and the only way to do so is to reach out to as many Kenyans as possible.
According to Gitau, Ruto is not threatened by the support Raila is getting from President Kenyatta.
Gitau said the DP will crush a combination of Uhuru, Raila and the Oka principals.
“In the 2022 election, the country will witness a natural transition to new power. I dare say it will be the true transition from post-colonial power to a new dispensation that power will rest in the hands of Kenyans,” she stated.
On October 15, a poll by Radio Africa suggested Ruto is leading the presidential race in Mt Kenya region with 57 per cent support against Raila’s 11 per cent.
On Wednesday, Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria predicted that Ruto would get 70 per cent of the Mt Kenya votes with Raila securing the remaining 30 per cent.
According to Kuria's prediction, Raila will win the presidency in a two-horse race with Ruto.
In both the 2013 and 2017 polls, Uhuru with Ruto as his running mate secured an average of 95 per cent from the 10 vote-rich Mt Kenya counties.
Combined with an equally impressive voter turnout in Ruto’s Kalenjin-dominated counties, the duo romped to power in what political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi described then as the tyranny of numbers.
But even then, Uhuru won the 2013 presidential election by the narrowest of margins, 50.07 per cent of the vote, and avoided a runoff.
Political analyst Javas Bigambo says there has been a misconception that bagging Mt Kenya votes is all that is needed to capture the presidency.
“We know that the country's law provides that a presidential candidate must garner at least 25 percent of the votes cast in more than half of the 47 counties. That is how to draw the legitimacy,” Bigambo told the Star, explaining why Ruto is going flat out for other areas.
Analysts have said that Ruto needs to maintain a strong grip on Mt Kenya to win the presidency and a drop could be disastrous to his bid.
“The very lowest he should be at [in Mt Kenya] is 70 per cent and if he were to go to as low as the 57 per cent, then there is no way he can seek compensatory votes from elsewhere,” said University of Nairobi don Herman Manyora.
The Star has learned that the DP has also tweaked his campaign plans, narrowing to smaller units in his campaigns unlike before when he could traverse more than two counties within a day.
Insiders in the DP’s campaign team say this new approach will allow the DP a more personalised and closer interaction with the electorate at the grassroots level.
After spending most of his time campaigning in major towns in the counties, the DP is now cascading his “hustler movement” deep into the villages marketing his bottom-up economic model which he says will be a game-changer.
Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua, a close confidant of the DP who sits in the campaign decision-making organ, said they have opted for the new plan so as to reach out to as many people as possible.
He said the DP is keen to reach out to many Kenyans, noting that they want to market the bottom-up economic model to the lowest unit of society.
“If you have been keen, you should have noted that previously our meetings were largely in town centres, headquarters of the counties. The DP has visited nearly all the counties and we cannot repeat visiting the same venues,” he told the Star.
“Because of the huge demand for the DP and the bottom-up economic model, which is resonating well with Kenyans across the country, we want the DP to interact with our supporters right at the grassroots level,” he said.
Over the last four weeks, the DP has dedicated two days to a week to regions he is taking his campaigns to.
On Monday, Ruto pitched camp in Makueni county where he engaged traders in Kibwezi, Kiundwani and Makindu towns and on Thursday he was back to Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka’s turf.
Ruto will be in Ukambani for two days, a region that voted overwhelmingly for Cord and Nasa in both the 2013 and 2017 general elections.
The DP has also started allowing aspirants eyeing various political positions in the upcoming general election to campaign for themselves, giving them a platform to address his rallies.
Former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar and Ruto’s point man at the Coast said the latest move by the DP is deliberate and in line with the model they have adopted in involving their supporters in crafting the UDA manifesto.
Omar said the DP wants to engage directly with the people, pointing out that Ruto has made major inroads in regions that did not vote for the ruling Jubilee in the previous elections.
“First of all, we need to appreciate the fact that the DP means business with the bottom-up economic model. He has repeatedly told us both in private and in public that he will do all he can to transform Kenya and prove wrong his critics,” he said.
“The DP wants direct engagement and contact with the people. This is all about bottom-up. Apart from Rift Valley and Mt Kenya, the DP is the man of the moment in Coast, Western, South Nyanza and he is making a breakthrough in Ukambani because of the development agenda he has for the country.”
Edited by Henry Makori
