Supremacy wars force Ruto into shelving Migori trip

President William Ruto returns to Nyanza on Thursday, for a four-day tour of the region amid wrangles that have forced a change of plans.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga is expected to join Dr Ruto in the tour that preludes Sunday's Madaraka Day celebration in Homa Bay County.

According to an itinerary shared by the State House, the President will be in Kisumu on Thursday and will visit the Makasembo housing and Otonglo affordable housing projects and launch other government programmes.

He is also scheduled to tour Homa Bay and launch the Gor Mahia Ring Road in Homa Bay Town, a constituency led by Peter Kaluma. He is expected to close the Blue Economy Conference in the same county on Friday.

On the same day, he will open the Homa Bay fish market, the Homa Bay Pier and visit an affordable housing project before opening the Rangwe Sub-County headquarters.

Ruto was initially meant to start his tour in Migori, a county he visited three weeks ago, before heading to Homa Bay and Kisumu.

The Standard has established that wrangles between the county’s leadership and other elected leaders saw the Migori tour shelved. The county announced that the visit was “postponed to a future date due to engagements and functions that will happen in Kisumu on the same day.”

However, sources told the Standard that supremacy battles led to the tour’s cancellation. On Tuesday, National Assembly Minority Leader Junet Mohamed convened a meeting attended by a section of lawmakers from the county in Nairobi, with the MPs threatening to boycott the Migori tour on claims they were sidelined, forcing the State House to cancel it.

 A lawmaker who sought anonymity accused Governor Ochillo Ayacko of trying to isolate other leaders in planning the tour, which has reportedly turned MPs against him.

“We resolved to boycott the tour because the governor did not involve anyone else in planning the tour, which was to happen in our constituencies,” said the MP, who attended the meeting.

Junet did not respond to our inquiry for comment on why the tour was cancelled. Similarly, we could not reach Ayacko for comment.

The governor met Ruto last week without some of the county’s leaders, which rattled those who missed out. Ayacko had requested the meeting that should have included all elected politicians from Migori, a meeting that the Members of the County Assembly had requested when Ruto visited the county earlier this month.

In the current tour of Nyanza, the fifth since 2022, Ruto is not scheduled to visit Siaya. The Governor James Orengo-led county has had its share of wrangles, too.

Orengo has mostly been left isolated over his opposition to Ruto, and his requests to meet the Head of State snubbed. The county boss has written to Ruto to request a meeting with a delegation from Siaya.

Frustrated, the county’s elected politicians have sought audience independently and have sought to engage the President through Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi, who recently met MPs to plan a meeting with Ruto.

Ruto, who faces opposition from Orengo, hopes to inherit the Nyanza backyard from Raila. In the 2022 election, the four counties of Siaya, Kisumu, Homa Bay and Migori produced 1.56 million votes, with Raila securing 95 per cent of the vote.

Such numbers are enticing to the President, who is perceived to be losing ground in the Mount Kenya region. Indeed, the President has sought to diversify his basket and ventured out to other regions.

With Raila’s blessings, Ruto could replicate the former premier’s success in Nyanza. However, the unending wrangles in the region’s counties, as well as resistance from some of its politicians, threaten to thwart Ruto’s bid to inherit the bloc wholly.

Wrangles among elected politicians have often been perceived as insignificant in determining how regions vote for presidential candidates. However, there have been concerns that leaving the fights unresolved eventually affects the voter turnout. This fact has seen parties like the Orange Democratic Movement plan their nomination processes better, embracing consensus to avert fallouts.

“The wrangles are a storm in a teacup,” said Dr Timothy Onduru, who teaches history at Moi University. “They will not affect Ruto’s chances as Raila still has solid support in Luoland. Whatever he tells the people, they will do.”