• The team will have engagements with residents of Vihiga and Busia counties on Wednesday before camping in Kakamega on Thursday.
• The team will wind up its western campaign tour on Friday with rallies in Bungoma and Trans Nzoia.
Image: DPPS
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance led by Deputy President William Ruto will this week return to Western region in a three-day campaign blitz.
The brigade, comprising Ruto, ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi, Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetang’ula and other affiliate party leaders, will hold meet-the-people tours in Trans Nzoia, Bungoma, Busia, Vihiga and Kakamega counties between Wednesday and Friday.
The team will have engagements with residents of Vihiga and Busia counties on Wednesday before camping in Kakamega on Thursday. Kakamega is considered the cradle of Western politics.
The team will wind up its western campaign tour on Friday with rallies in Bungoma and Trans Nzoia.
The alliance held a similar three-day campaign tour of the region in February, days after Mudavadi and Wetang'ula teamed up with Ruto's UDA to form the Kenya Kwanza alliance.
It was their first tour of the region after the birth of a union between UDA, ANC and Ford Kenya.
The restive campaigns by Kenya Kwanza and Azimio formations in Western underscores the importance of the region's votes in national politics.
The Western tour comes after Kenya Kwanza teams campaigned in parts of Nairobi and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Central backyard.
The team’s Western visits comes days after Sirisia MP John Waluke decamped from UDA back to Jubilee in a move seen to largely weaken DP Ruto's influence in Bungoma county.
Another Ruto ally, Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa, is also mulling decamping. The MPs are angry at a rumoured agreement within Kenya Kwanza that allows only ANC and Ford Kenya to field candidates in Western counties, including Trans Nzoia.
Kakamega Deputy Governor Philip Kutima, who was initially touted as angling to join the Kenya Kwanza bandwagon through ANC, defected last week to DAP-K, an affiliate of Azimio.
Mudavadi was to meet all ANC aspirants in Nairobi on Monday to bond and plan for the August polls.
The meeting comes amid claims the party was dying since its union with UDA and Ford Kenya in January.
Mudavadi and Wetang'ula are fighting to retain control of the Luhya bloc and tilt the scales in favour of DP Ruto.
Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga's foot soldiers, led by Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Defence CS Eugene Wamalwa, are on the other hand working to ensure ODM retains its traditional support in Western, especially after Mudavadi and Wetang'ula joined Ruto's team.
Edited by A.N