With nearly 30 days to the August 9 polls, Azimio La Umoja and the Kenya Kwanza alliance are strategising last-minute tactics to outshine each other in both the campaigns and the polls.
Azimio under former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, deployed a counter-offensive that aims at discrediting Deputy President William Ruto of the Kenya Kwanza alliance.
In an unprecedented move, the coalition members have been playing Ruto's sound bytes, depicting how he wavers and changes stances on crucial issues that affect voters of a particular region.
Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho in May played two audio clips of Ruto regarding the transfer of Mombasa Port to the Naivasha Inland Container Depot - a dry port.
In the first video, Ruto was heard dismissing claims that the State was planning to move the Mombasa port to Naivasha in 2017.
Ruto, then enjoying the trappings of power, played down the possibility of shifting operations to Naivasha, arguing that it was not logical for the sea to be moved to Naivasha.
In the second video recorded in 2022, Ruto could be heard promising the Coastal electorate that he would bring back operations to the Port of Mombasa to create more jobs in the region.
The DP seemingly countered his own words in an effort to woo voters, now that he had fallen apart with his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Governor Joho used the two audio clips to contrast the two perspectives and to refute Ruto's promises, agendas and manifestos.
In the second instance, Suna East Member of Parliament, Junet Mohammed on Sunday, July 3, played yet another damaging audio clip of William Ruto while addressing a rally in Homa Bay County.
The controversial audio was linked to the DP confessing that he nearly slapped President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2017. The audio clip elicited mixed reactions across the mainstream and social media platforms.
Politicians affiliated with the Azimio La Umoja shared the clip and questioned Ruto’s integrity and temperament.
Ruto and his brigade, however, picked a leaf from William Benoit's Image Restoration Theory, to hit back at Azimio's politicians while aiming to turn around the negative publicity to Ruto's advantage.
The theory outlines strategies that can be used to restore one's image in an event where reputation has been damaged. Ruto and his allies resorted to painting Uhuru as an alleged weak leader who needed to be pushed into retaining power.
Ruto, his running mate Rigathi Gachagua and Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki claimed that Uhuru opposed the Repeat General Election and wanted to retire early, after only one term in power.
“They are now secretly recording and sharing it all over that Ruto pushed the president. Did you want us to allow him to leave the seat when we woke up at 5 am? " Wondered William Ruto.
Kithure further alleged that Uhuru, in 2013 too, wanted to hand over his candidacy to Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi. The lawyer claimed that he shredded the documents Uhuru had signed to relinquish power in 2013.
The President, however, has repeatedly countered the narratives, saying that he was hell-bent on fostering peace by all means, even if it meant sharing power with the opposition leader, Raila Odinga.
Uhuru stated that he was disturbed by the tensions ahead of the 2017 Repeat General Elections and consulted Ruto prior to the handshake between him and Raila. The DP, Uhuru claimed, was against the move which ultimately led to their fallout.
The President also hit out at DP's double speak, terming him a hypocrite. Ruto, he said, would criticise the government at one point and then enjoy its successes later.
"My aim is to ensure that all who will take from me will not be thieves and harass citizens. My aim is to make sure that they will have the urge to unite the country," he stated on Thursday, February 11, 2021.
"We need to either work together or not. If they feel that the government is favourable to them, then they should work with us but if they disassociate themselves, then let them resign," the President added a day later.
