Politician Mistakenly Endorses Azimio at Ruto's Rally

A collage of Deputy President William Ruto and ODM Leader Raila Odinga
A collage of Deputy President William Ruto and ODM Leader Raila Odinga.
Kenyans.co.ke

Deputy President William Ruto was on Monday, February 7, taken aback by a declaration made by a parliamentary aspirant, who publicly endorsed the Azimio la Umoja coalition during a Kenya Kwanza rally in Busia

As the protocol of the joint rallies by the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), the Amani National Congress (ANC) and Ford Kenya, the DP invited local and national leaders to address the enthusiastic crowd. 

When Nambale parliamentary aspirant Bernard Nandieki took over the microphone, he took a minute to campaign for himself. However, in a bid to vouch for Kenya Kwanza, he mistakenly asked the constituents to vote for Azimio la Umoja.

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"We want change! This time there will be no games, I will be elected MP for Nambale constituency. So I ask you, the people of Nambale to vote for Azimio..." he began before he posed.

The crowd burst into laughter, noticing the blunder the young aspirant made: he had just publicly endorsed Raila Odinga - Ruto's arch-rival in the August 9 General Election. An effort by Nandieki to amend his mistake worsened the situation.

"You vote for Azimio ya Kenya Kwanza. The one headed by the hustler himself, his excellency, Dr William Samoei Ruto," he noted as the DP bowed his head in disappointment.

His statement attracted ridicule from members of the Azimio la Umoja political movement, who have for the longest time, referred to the Western Region as Odinga's stronghold. 

The video went viral as Raila's supporters used the video to demonstrate what they described as a Freudian slip by one of the DP's supporters. 

A Freudian slip is a psychological concept where a speaker makes an intentional error that betrays their subconscious feeling. In this case, the Azimio camp claimed that Nandieki was subconsciously a Raila supporter. 

The Kenya Kwanza team did not issue a comment on the viral clip but the DP's supporters downplayed the incident as an innocent slip of the tongue. 

"This time there will be no games. You have been asked by UDA aspirants to vote for Azimio. Their words, not ours," Robert Alai wrote. 

DP Ruto, ANC Party Leader, Musalia Mudavadi and his  Ford Kenya counterpart, Moses Wetangula are raiding the Western region, in a bid to dilute Odinga's influence in the region. Although Western has voted as a block in a previous election, 2022 will be different following Mudavadi's split from Raila.

From left: Party leaders Musalia Mudavadi (ANC), William Ruto (UDA) and Moses Wetangula (Ford-Kenya) at a rally in Nakuru County on January 26, 2022
From left: Party leaders Musalia Mudavadi (ANC), William Ruto (UDA) and Moses Wetangula (Ford-Kenya) at a rally in Nakuru County on January 26, 2022
DPPS