Deputy President William Ruto’s camp has claimed that Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya’s defection from ODM has been planned for two years.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, April 13, Ruto's confidant Rigathi Gachagua said that the ODM Deputy Party Leader has had four consecutive private meetings with the DP in preparation for his exit from the ODM party.
He added that Oparanya first approached Ruto in 2019 and again in 2020, citing that the team looked more formidable as well as mounting pressure from his constituents to join forces with the DP.
"That meeting between Ruto and Oparanya is the 4th meeting in a row. We have been meeting Oparanya and I have been present in two previous meetings. He approached us in the year 2019 and 2020 wanting to join the hustler nation.
“It is only now that he has agreed. Those meetings were held in private, he didn’t want them publicized but now he is ready and the last meeting was at his request and didn’t mind it being publicised because he is ready to come to us,” Gachagua explained.
The Mathira MP also denied that Oparanya was being used to mend the relationship between the deputy president and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
The meetings have caused jitters among supporters of Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta who became suspicious.
The speculation was also fuelled by Oparanya’s u-turn on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) which means Uhuru and Raila could lose support in Western Kenya.
“It is not tenable to conduct a referendum 12 months to the General Election,” Oparanya said days before meeting with Ruto.
It was also reported that the Kakamega Governor has been positioning himself to join the next government that will be formed in 2022.
With the expiry of his term fast approaching, sources close to Oparanya have hinted that he could seek the Butere MP seat in the coming General Election.
As an MP, Oparanya will be eligible to be appointed to Cabinet in the next government, if the BBI constitutional amendments sail through.
