Former president Daniel Arap Moi's press secretary, Lee Njiru, has vouched for President-elect William Ruto's United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to win the Rongai, Nakuru elections slated for Monday, August 29.
Mzee Moi's son, Raymond Moi, is seeking to defend his Rongai parliamentary seat on a KANU ticket and is facing stiff competition from Paul Chebor of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
Njiru stated that UDA was more popular in the region than other parties including Raymond's KANU. He thus cautioned candidates not to campaign against Ruto and his party which he described as a wave.
He also hit back at those criticizing him for supporting Ruto rather than Moi's son, arguing that no one had the power to control the decision of Kenyans.
"Nobody owns Kenyans. Kenyans are nobody's slaves. Nobody owns the people of Rongai as they can always decide on their own."
"Ruto commands a huge following in both Mt Kenya and the Rift Valley region. Anybody going against the grain in the regions can definitely not survive," he opined.
His explanation, however, did not augur well with the section of Kenyans who reiterated that he should have campaigned for Moi's son having served the former president for decades.
"Lee Njiru has two chapters in his book dedicated to thanking President Moi and Uhuru Kenyatta for standing by him when malicious staff in Moi's office plotted to fire him from his job. The guy is now campaigning against Moi's son in Rongai," scholar and newspaper columnist Gabriel Oguda wondered.
Njiru, in his defence, added that politicians and Kenyans had a right to change their allegiance to any faction citing various leaders who have worked with people nobody perceived.
The Rongai parliamentary election was postponed from August 9 to Monday, August 29 after it was discovered that there was a mishap in the printing of the ballot papers.
Raymond, while addressing his supporters, claimed that the postponement was a plot to unlawfully force his out of office.
"I warned IEBC officials when I presented my papers to be careful about the perennial mess of election malpractices in Rongai but they seem not to have taken it seriously. It is now clear to me that it is IEBC that wants to rig me out.
"It is not the residents who don't want me (as claimed). It is IEBC who are making deliberate mistakes," Raymond lamented
