{"id":914805,"date":"2022-01-09T15:33:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T15:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/09\/which-way-western-as-raila-ruto-battle-for-region-votes-intensifies\/"},"modified":"2022-01-09T15:33:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T15:33:33","slug":"which-way-western-as-raila-ruto-battle-for-region-votes-intensifies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/09\/which-way-western-as-raila-ruto-battle-for-region-votes-intensifies\/","title":{"rendered":"Which way Western as Raila, Ruto battle for region votes intensifies?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"art-img row mx-md-0\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/banqbrufozah7j61daa213cc69c.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid w-100\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"bg-light mb-3 p-3 row mx-md-0\"><strong>ODM leader Raila Odinga during the Azimio La Umoja rally Kakamega chapter at Bukhungu Stadium on December 31, 2021<\/strong>. [Collins Oduor, Standard]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"card-text\">ODM leader\u00a0Raila\u00a0Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto have used the delay of the One Kenya Alliance in announcing their presidential candidate to gain ground in\u00a0Western\u00a0Kenya.\n<\/p>\n<p>And that has effectively hit Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi\u2019s support base, making his task of delivering a united vote from the region difficult.\n<\/p>\n<p>Suspicion has been rife after rumours emerged that the two leaders from\u00a0Western, Mudavadi and Ford-Kenya leader Moses Wetangula were in talks with Ruto although confidants says no such meetings have taken place. <\/p>\n<p>A Ford Kenya MP told Sunday Standard that they know their supporters are getting anxious but they are waiting for Musalia to launch his presidential bid.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know they (OKA) are determined to have a third horse on the ballot but there is a lot of pressure now being exerted by other political forces in the region,\u201d said the second term MP.<\/p>\n<p>Mudavadi has kept people guessing over\u00a0which\u00a0partnership he will work with as he insists on running for President under the One Kenya Alliance (OKA) banner.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have the freedom of associating with other leaders but rumours that I will form a coalition with Ruto\u2019s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) are not true,\u201d said Mudavadi.\n<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"x3i3ZvbygB0\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Newspaper Watch: Mudavadi hit as Raila, Ruto invade Western\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x3i3ZvbygB0?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>The region will in the next few months be bombarded with high octane politics by all political forces wooing it.\n<\/p>\n<p>Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli announced that they will hold rallies in all counties in the\u00a0Western\u00a0soon to ensure that all votes go to\u00a0Raila\u00a0and candidates vying on the Azimio la Umoja movement ticket.\n<\/p>\n<p>He was reacting to Ruto\u2019s latest forays in the region, telling the DP that\u00a0Western\u00a0Kenya is sealed for Azimio and it is a waste of time even if he visited the area 20 times per week.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are going to have rallies in each and every county and that is when he will realise that those who are cheating him that he will get votes there are just after something else,\u201d said Atwoli.\n<\/p>\n<p>But having kicked off his campaigns in the area almost three years ago after he decamped with almost all Jubilee MPs, Ruto appears to be increasing his campaign tempo. <\/p>\n<p>Apart from Navakholo MP Emmanuel Wangwe and Ikolomani\u2019s Bernard Shinali who are in Azimio, other Jubilee MPs like Mwambu Mabonga (Bumula), Didimus Barasa (Kimilili)\n<\/p>\n<p>and Dan Wanyama (Webuye West) are in UDA.\n<\/p>\n<p>Ruto has also made his presence felt in Busia especially in Teso where his United Republic Party (now defunct) won two seats in 2013 and in Budalang\u2019i through CAS Ababu Namwamba.\n<\/p>\n<p>Political analyst Martin Andati argues that Ruto may have noticed that he needs support from Mudavadi and Wetangula to reach his target of 50 per cent plus 1 threshold to win the presidency.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is now rallying the youth and other masses in the region to put pressure on the two leaders to work with him because he knows they will deliver the numbers he needs,\u201d said Andati.\n<\/p>\n<p>Over the last two months, Ruto has changed tack by repeatedly asking people at his rallies if they want him to work with \u201comwami Mudavadi and omwami Weta\u201d to form the next government instead of attacking them.\n<\/p>\n<p>Andati also attributes Ruto\u2019s intensified campaigns in\u00a0Western\u00a0to the Azimio brigade in the region turning their guns against Mudavadi and Wetangula, while hoping that Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya, Atwoli and Eugene Wamalwa will deliver victory for\u00a0Raila.\n<\/p>\n<p>And so, that makes Ruto the only possible suitor for the duo, should they decide to join another alliances if the OKA option fails in its quest of creating a third force.\n<\/p>\n<p>Mudavadi is expected to launch his presidential campaign later this month, long after all other key players apart from Ruto convened their national delegates meetings in Nairobi.\n<\/p>\n<p>Analysts argue that his passive approach and delay in launching his campaign has also created an opportunity that Ruto has seized.\n<\/p>\n<p>Ruto never took a break during Christmas and New Year and used the opportunity to run around\u00a0Western\u00a0saying\u00a0that he was in the region with Musalia\u2019s blessings.\n<\/p>\n<p>Asked if the Oparanya, Atwoli, Eugene team will have a big impact in directing how the region votes, Andati says it will be difficult because of their diminished political clout.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOparanya is the Second Deputy Party Leader in ODM\u00a0which\u00a0is\u00a0Raila\u2019s\u00a0party and both Atwoli and Eugene do not have any elective positions\u00a0which\u00a0makes it difficult for them to convince the masses,\u201d says Andati.\n<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, all the three \u2014 Oparanya, Eugene and Atwoli \u2014 will not vie for any position but sources within their ranks claim the governor and the CS will be angling for appointments in the Azimio Movement government.\n<\/p>\n<p>The most challenging task for Oparanya now is to ensure that he delivers the community as a bloc to\u00a0Raila\u00a0and also negotiates for the region\u2019s interests should the ODM leader take power now that he is the Luhya spokeman.\n<\/p>\n<p>That is a huge task for the governor because of the big forces he is facing, among them the UDA onslaught in the area and the indifference of the two regional kingpins Mudavadi and Wetangula.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.standardmedia.co.ke\/article\/2001433882\/which-way-western-as-raila-ruto-battle-for-region-votes-intensifies\">Source: The Standard Media Kenya<\/a> <a \"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ODM leader Raila Odinga during the Azimio La Umoja rally Kakamega chapter at Bukhungu Stadium on December 31, 2021. [Collins Oduor, Standard] ODM leader\u00a0Raila\u00a0Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto have used the delay of the One Kenya Alliance in announcing their presidential candidate to gain ground in\u00a0Western\u00a0Kenya. And that has effectively hit Amani National Congress [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-914805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}