As August 9 draws closer both Deputy President Dr. William Ruto and Raila Odinga are working on strategies to win polls in the first round by garnering more than 50% of the votes cast.
The DP is set to defeat Mr. Odinga who is relying on President Uhuru Kenyatta and the system to propel him to the presidency in his sixth attempt. But with Ruto enjoying unwavering support in the president’s backyard and the government’s outright intimidation of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), all does not seem well in Odinga/Kenyatta’s camp.
The fact that Dr. Ruto remains the man to beat has pushed President Kenyatta to go on car roofs to campaign for Raila in areas perceived as Odinga’s strongholds but the DP has made serious inroads.
The president recently met with Kikuyu and Kalenjin elders in Nakuru where he openly talked ill of the DP but still could not hide from the fact he betrayed Ruto, the man who helped him win 2013 and 2017 elections when he was giving up to retire back to his village.
Both Ruto and Odinga are targeting at least 10 million votes to be guaranteed of a first round win in a race that may be determined by the historical battlegrounds in the northern part of the country and parts of the South Rift.
Dr Ruto comes from the Rift Valley region which is home to 14 counties and with the highest number of voters at 5.34 million. It is followed by Mt. Kenya region which is home to five counties and has 3.1 million voters.
The DP is way ahead of Odinga in Rift Valley, Mt. Kenya, North Eastern and is neck to neck with the Azimio candidate in Nairobi County which is home to 2.41 million voters and is considered as one of the most critical counties for the presidential race.
Odinga is worried that the best he can score against Ruto is a runoff. The entry of Uhuru in public campaigns is not doing him any good and the verbal exchanges between the president and his deputy also shows that Mr. Kenyatta is hell-bent to force a third term through Odinga who is funding to clinch the coming polls.
The Azimio flag bearer’s popularity also suffered a blow after he was advised to skip the presidential debate which would have offered him a good platform to sell his agenda against Dr. Ruto who is keen of fixing the country’s depleted economy.
Odinga is enjoying President Kenyatta and the state’s support but at 78 years of age and failing health, he has been reduced him to mince meat for Ruto. He will be eaten for breakfast even if the polls extend to a rerun.
Dr. Ruto in his strategies has ensured that Odinga spends most of his time doing damage control in areas that were once perceived as his strongholds like Nyanza, Western, Coast and Ukambani.
Analysts point that even Raila views Uhuru support as counterproductive given the palpable unpopularity of the president among those who voted for him in the two previous polls.
Uhuru cannot convince his supporters how Odinga whom he called a war merchant and all manner of demeaning names has become the right man to unite Kenyans and achieve peace.
His attempts to portray Dr. Ruto as a man who does not have the interests of the Kikuyu community at heart have also hit a brick wall asKikuyus have vowed to even vote for Dr. Ruto in more numbers than they did for him.
If they woke up at 5am to vote for Uhuru, they will now wake up at 2am to vote for Ruto and ensure that he [Ruto] sheds tears for the love they will show him.
Uhuru’s betrayal is doing more harm to Odinga campaigns and the tribal card he is pulling is not selling anymore. The DP set the agenda for 2022 polls to be based on fixing the economy and creating employment leaving Uhuru and Raila irrelevant with their old tribal cards and tricks to overhaul the constitution.
