Deputy President William Ruto was recently forced to hurriedly cut short his tour of Laikipia county after details emerged of how suspected members of the proscribed Mungiki sect had hijacked the planning and mobilization with the aim of humiliating him, as well as benefit from the goodies the DP was set to dish out through his empowerment programmes.
Using their signature threats and blackmail tactics, the group, whose origin is in Laikipia county, is said to have summoned Ruto’s point men ahead of the tour and instructed them to include known members of the sect in the planning.
Before cutting short his tour, Ruto’s team on the ground had been forced to cancel a number of high-level empowerment activities that were to run for two days starting Tuesday 7th through Wednesday 8th, following intense pressure and intimidation by the sect’s members.
The sect leaders demanded that their members be assigned leading roles in organizing the empowerment programmes that Ruto was set to preside over. The local organisers had identified Boda Boda groups, small scale traders and Women groups.
To make it easy to infiltrate, members of the sect also demanded the exclusion of women in the list of beneficiary groups.
Living to their extortionist reputation, the local sect leaders demanded that their members form the bulk of would-be beneficiaries and went further to demand a share of mobilization and planning funds that was said to have been sent to DP’s point men in the area.
Out of fear, Ruto’s point men in Kinamba, Nga’rua, Karandi and Ol Moran where rallies and empowerment programmes were supposed to be held, abandoned the planning with some going into hiding effectively paralyzing the DP’s activities.
Come Monday December 6TH and having been briefed on the happenings, the Deputy President insisted, despite lack of proper organization, that the rallies and empowerment exercises had to go on as planned.
However, this was revised and his team agreed on holding rallies and cancelled the planned empowerment programmes, as residents were said not to be keen on receiving any goodies for fear of Mungiki demands.
A team was hurriedly assembled to carry out mobilization and distribute United Democratic Alliance merchandise ahead of rallies slated for Tuesday.
By next morning, the DP’s team had carried out substantial mobilization before commencement of successful whistle stop tours covering Sipili, Kinamba, Kimoriot, Gatirima, Muthengera, Kwa Wanjiku and Karandi.
However, it is at Karandi trading center where the Deputy President came face to face with Mungiki’s brazen ways. As he began his address, Ruto who was under tight security of combat dressed heavily armed elite Reece squad, was booed and jeered by a crowd that donned UDA T-Shirts but waved posters of former Mungiki leader and Laikipia senatorial aspirant Maina Njenga.
While Ruto faced humiliation, Njenga stood unperturbed right in the middle of the jeering crowd surrounded by young men. The former Mungiki leader is a KANU member and he is expected to vie on the party’s ticket.
Undeterred, the DP told off the hecklers who seemed to increase in numbers.
“Msikuje hapa kupiga kelele Kwa mkutano yangu. Kila mtu apange mkutano yake. Wacheni upuzi. hapana (Don’t come to disrupt my rally. Everyone should plan their own rally. Stop this nonsense),” he said as the crowd continued booing and heckling.
The DP continued,” No..no siwezi kukubali. Kwani mumekuja kutupigia kelele hapa? Kama hamtaki twende na nidhamu please tafadhali…kila mtu apange mkutano yake. (I won’t allow it. You can’t come here to heckle me.If you don’t want to maintain discipline ..go plan your rally).
Seeking to pacify the crowd Ruto fronted former Mungiki sect leader Maina Njenga as the UDA senator candidate for the region.
“Mtanipatia senator ambaye anajua mambo ya bottom up? Kwa hivyo Maina Njenga akuje UDA ama afanye nini? (Will you give me a senator who understands bottom up? So Maina Njenga should join UDA), Ruto asked the crowd.
“Hii Kura ya Karandi ni ya hustler ama ni ya wale? (Do the votes here belong to the hustlers or the opponents)
Contrary to speculation that the Karandi heckling was carried out by Mungiki sect members, area residents admitted that they are the ones who heckled the second in command on instructions and blackmail by local sect leaders. This explains why some hecklers donned UDA T-shirts.
The instructions were issued early Tuesday morning during distribution UDA merchandize to residents. Other sources informed that the local organisers of Ruto’s tour had to part with money to the sect members in order to be allowed to carry on with the exercise.
On learning that more such humiliation and heckling was planned in other rallies ahead, the Deputy president’s team abruptly called off further engagements in the county cancelling rallies in Kinamba, Nga’rua and Ol Moran.
The threat by the sect members also saw a number of Mt. Kenya leaders who usually accompany the DP to such rallies, keep off leaving only a handful of them accompany him.
The involvement of Mungiki in the humiliation of the second in command was confirmed by Garissa township MP and close Ruto ally Aden Duale, during a Television interview.
To compensate for the lost campaign opportunity and not keen to visit the area soon,a plan was mooted to have leaders and grassroot mobilizers meet with the Deputy President at a later date.The meeting was held on Monday this week,with a huge deligation at Ruto’s official Karen residence.
