A group of youth in Busia had demanded to be paid Sh400,000 ahead of Deputy President William Ruto’s tour of the county on Saturday before his motorcade was attacked, UDA national vice Treasurer Mary Emase has said.
The youth had said the DP’s rallies would be disrupted should they not be paid the money, Emase told the Star on Sunday.
There were incidents of minimal violence in Busia on Saturday during Ruto’s tour of the county as some youth tried to disrupt the DP’s visit.
But police, Emase said, intervened and calmed the situation.
Two vehicles claimed to have been part of the DP’s motorcade were attacked and their windows smashed at Korinda area in Matayos subcounty as Ruto drove towards Nambale town. The DP had finished addressing a rally in Bumala.
“The jobless youth wanted Sh400,000 before they vandalised the vehicles. We cannot allow jobless people to come and rule us in Busia. That you cannot conduct a rally in Busia if you have not given them Sh400,000? We can’t allow that,” Emase said.
She said none of the vehicles belonging to the DP and other top county UDA leaders was destroyed.
Emase said the vehicles destroyed may have been those that joined the DP’s motorcade after his rally in Bumala.
“I was in that motorcade. Come and see my vehicle. It wasn’t touched,” the former Teso South MP said.
She said the incidents of violence that had been reported in Busia town were quelled before the DP’s arrival.
“Whatever happened in Busia town occurred before our arrival,” Emase said.
“A group of jobless youth tried to terrorise Busia town before we arrived but the police intervened and dispersed them, and this happened before we arrived. Our motorcade was in Bumala by the time they did the things they did in Busia town.”
Some youth lit born-fires in Busia town as they tried to block Ruto from driving into the border town to address a rally at the Busia main bus park.
Emase also clarified that the attack did not happen in Teso as claimed by people she termed as “social media” propagandists.
Some social media pages were awash with claims that the attack on Ruto’s motorcade happened in Teo South.
Ruto in an armature video shot at the scene where the vehicles were destroyed condemned the attack.
Emase said the DP’s tour of Busia was generally peaceful.
“We went to Nambala and conducted a successful rally there. From Nambale we went to Busia town at the main bus park where we did the rally peacefully before we came to Teso region. Personally I did not witness any chaos,” she said.
She said UDA will continue to offer assistance to struggling traders who she said are targeted by Ruto’s bottom-up economic model.
“We better give the Sh400,000 to small scale traders as we build our bottom-up economic model,” she said.
“We cannot give money to jobless people who have no clear plan. We better assist struggling traders.”
Emase said some of the youth involved in Saturday’s violence gate-crushed two of the meetings meant to organise Ruto’s visit and demanded money lest they disrupt the rallies.
She said the youth warned county UDA coordinator Susan Mangeni that Ruto would not conduct peaceful rallies in the county if the Sh400,000 was not paid.
Ruto while in Busia town condemned the attack on vehicles in Korinda.
“The characters who pay other people’s children to cause violence and throw stones, we are telling you shame on you. This country is going to change and I want the young people of this nation to know that this time we are going to change our country,” Ruto said.
-Edited by SKanyara
