Former Bomet Governor Isaac Rutto has finally come out in the open and admitted that he was working on a political deal with President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Rutto who is the Chama Cha Mashinani Party leader said his post-election coalition with Jubilee could be ready as soon as next week.
“The Party Leader Hon Isaac Rutto met with the President H.E Uhuru Kenyatta and agreed in principle that the two parties work together in the interest of peace, cohesion and development in the country,” Rutto’s aide Kiprotich Samoei said in a statement to newsrooms.
On Thursday, the Star exclusively reported that Uhuru could be planning to hand a cabinet slot to Rutto, a vocal critic of Deputy President William Ruto, as part of his strategy to whittle down the DP’s influence.
Rutto was picked by a chopper from his rural home in Bomet for a meeting with the President but immediately after the news leaked, CCM came out to strongly deny.
However, on Wednesday, the party admitted that they are at the tail end of fine-tuning its working agreement with Jubilee.
“As you may recall, Isaac Rutto was the first Nasa principal to do a handshake with the President before the repeat election when he joined him at a campaign rally at Kapkatet on 8 September 2017 and endorsed his re-election and pledged to work with the President,” CCM said.
Coincidentally, Rutto is a close associate of Baringo Senator Gideon Moi whose Kanu party has already struck a deal with Jubilee.
Kanu was rewarded handsomely, banging the position of majority leader in the Senate.
The coming together of these Rift Valley political titans could complicate DP Ruto's bid to consolidate the Rift Valley for his State House bid.
“The Rift Valley will now become noticeably fragmented for Ruto, the ground in which he hitherto could be the boss would shift,” said former Cabinet minister Franklin Bett.
He said the President was determined to get into a coalition with as many parties as possible to secure his legacy.
“Ruto made a big mistake to allow his foot soldiers to insult the President. He never reprimanded them when they claimed they had numbers. Numbers for what? Numbers against the President? Uhuru is hitting back,” Bett said.
