Raila used militia to disrupt Kibra by election - DP Ruto

Deputy President William Ruto has dismissed claims that Raila Odinga's ODM party planted men to spy on him in the Kibra by election.

Ruto instead accused Raila of having used militia to cause chaos in the mini poll that saw ODM's candidate win with a landslide.

Ruto said it was sad that though Raila and his brigade are advocating for the Building Bridges Initiative under the handshake, they had not learnt any lessons.

"The only strategy and structure Tinga's party had which largely succeeded was,violence, chaos,mayhem & terror meted out by organized baba's militia the same instruments used by terrorists organizations including outlawed groups,"Ruto wrote on his twitter page.

He added, "How sad they have learnt nothing from handshake!". 

Kibra by election was conducted on Thursday and had attracted 24 contestants out of whom Imran Okoth won with over 24, 000 votes followed by Jubilee's McDonald Mariga with slightly above 11,000 votes.

Musalia Mudavadi's ANC candidate O walo came third with above 5,000 votes while Moses Wetangula's Ford Kenya candidate garnered only 260 votes.

 Some 41,984 out of the 118,658 registered voters turned up to cast their ballots in the by-election which recorded 35.38 per cent turnout.

The by election was marred by drama and chaos that saw factions of various political alignments confronted each other.

Former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale who was Jubilee's point man in Mariga campaigns was captured hurling stones at some youth who later kicked him out of the polling station.

Kimilili Member of Parliament Didmus Barasa was also captured being roughed up by some youth.

Mariga was not even spared, though he had come with police escort, rowdy youth blocked the way forcing him to retreat.

It had been reported that ODM managed to beat Jubilee because Raila infiltrated Ruto’s camp, obtained first-hand intelligence and countered every plan as he fought to retain the Kibra seat perceived as his stronghold.

For every delegation that Ruto hosted in Karen, Raila had 50 people in it. They recorded all the speeches, collected cash and some even sat in Ruto’s strategy meetings only to transmit the entire information to Orange House.

“We knew everything he was planning and how much money he was allocating to the campaign and we made counter plans,” said Suna East MP Junet Mohamed who was the leader of the campaign secretariat.

At the heart of the battle for the seat was Ruto against Raila.

Ruto's team was led by former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale, Kabete MP Kimani Ichung'wa, Langata's Nixon Korir and Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie.

Raila’s team had a three-tire campaign structure that was well coordinated and financed.

The first team was led by Raila himself and comprised of governors Hassan Joho (Mombasa), Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega), James Ongwae (Kisii) and John Nyagarama (Nyamira).

They were later joined by Kitui’s Charity Ngilu, Makueni’s Kivutha Kibwana, Kirinyaga’s Anne Waiguru and Machakos’ Alfred Mutua. Former MP Fred Gumo also joined the team.

The second team was the campaign secretariat, which was led by Junet and brought together the party secretariat led by Edwin Sifuna, Okoth’s team and about 70 ODM MPs.

Rebel Jubilee MPs and leaders led by nominated MP Maina Kamanda and former Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru also joined this group and helped rally the Kikuyu vote.

The Kamanda team branding themselves as ‘handshake’ team also had  Beatrice Elachi (Nairobi County Speaker) and Gender Chief Administrative Secretary Rachael Shebesh.

The third group comprised of Nairobi ODM officials led by George Aladwa, the chief operations officers of the campaign, all Nairobi MCAs and other grassroots leaders in Kibra.

The three groups segmented the constituency into tribes and met members of different communities from Monday to Friday with their meetings culminating with weekend rallies where each community was dominant.