The chaos that erupted at the Bomet County Stadium on Sunday are threatening to scuttle Deputy President William Ruto’s prayer rally.
Former Governor Isaac Rutto, incumbent Hillary Barchok, and Ministry of Petroleum and Mining Chief Administrative Secretary John Mosonik all want a stake in who should organize, dictate and speak at the DP’s event.
The supremacy battles between the three who are eyeing the County’s top job in the upcoming August general election were at play on Sunday, during preparations for the event.
Governor Barchok was forced to cut short a planning meeting at the venue and leave in a huff as rival groups of rowdy youth clashed.
“This is a UDA affair. If you are planning to come, you are welcome, but behave. We don’t want to be dictated in terms of who should speak and who shouldn’t,” stated Barchok, in a swipe aimed at former governor Rutto, who is the Party Leader of the Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) Party.
In a rejoinder, Rutto argued that it wasn’t a UDA-only affair and that the governor wasn’t even a UDA member in the first place.
“I am disturbed by the governor’s remarks that he would want to see only UDA members, yet he himself is not even a member of UDA anyway. He is still a Jubilee member and has not resigned so we don’t even know what he would want to do in a UDA rally,” Rutto posed.
John Mosonik, on the flipside, wore a diplomatic tone, advocating for peace ahead of the planned rally.
“I know there are some issues but as Bomet residents, we need to show maturity in terms of welcoming everyone on board and making sure that there is no violence,” Mosonik stated.
The Deputy President is expected to visit Kericho County as well after the prayer rally in Bomet, as he seeks to galvanize his perceived Rift Valley stronghold.
On Saturday, Ruto held a mega rally in Eldoret that was attended by a host of UDA-allied MP’s from across the country.
Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala also made an appearance while Meru Senator Mithika Linturi would run into trouble over alleged inflammatory remarks he made that landed him in police custody.
