Deputy President William Ruto to met with politicians and professionals from Nyanza in an attempt to penetrate ODM leader Raila Odinga’s political strongholds.
The two-day meeting will starts tomorrow in Naivasha, He will discuss the DP’s bottom-up economic model that he believes will turn around the country’s economy.
“He will hold them for a two-day retreat to discuss the economic situation of the region in line with his proposed bottom-up economic model,” Ruto’s communication’s director Emmanuel Talam said.
Ruto and his economic think tanks have devised the bottom-up economic model that he believes will to uplift millions of Kenyans caged in the poverty corner.
“Bottom-up economy model will lift the millions of people in our nation that today either are jobless or are hustling and pastoralists and herders who are on food relief,” Ruto said at his Karen residence on Thursday.
Seen as part of the DP’s efforts to penetrate the region, the meeting comes barely three months after tens of leaders from Nyanza met with the DP’s team to craft an economic blueprint for the region that would form part of Ruto’s manifesto.
Nyanza, Raila’s backyard, has proved to be a hard nut to crack for the DP who has set his eyes on the Presidency in the 2022 general elections.
Raila, seen as Ruto’s main challenger in the race for the country’s top seat next year, is the region’s political kingpin, has maintained a firm grip and enjoyed near-fanatical support for decades.
In fact, this is the first time a group is emerging to chart a different political path, challenging Raila’s dominance of the region.
In May, top politicians from the region converged at Hermosa Hotel in Nairobi to craft the blueprint for Nyanza.
The document will be at the centre of the retreat.
They include former Kisumu governor Jack Ranguma, former Cabinet Minister Dalmas Otieno and former Raila’s campaign manager Eliud Owalo.
Others were former Rangwe MP Martin Ogindo, Citizens Convention Party leader Grace Akumu, former East Africa Portland Cement and Muhoroni Sugar Co Ltd managing director John Nyambok,
Former Vision 2030 director Judah Abekah, former Kenya Commercial Bank head of SMEs Christopher Migunde and educationist Prof David Otieno Okelo also attended the meeting.
Also in attendance were Elgah Riaga, development expert Geoffrey Muga, chairman of the Western Tourism Circuit Daniel Okumu, lawyers Duncan Ojwang and Amos Omollo, engineer Calleb Olali and cooperative sector expert Steve Otieno.
However, Raila’s troops trashed the attempts to market Ruto in the region, terming it an exercise in futility.
“If they think they have voters behind them, let them just go and offer themselves against those who will be nominated by ODM in 2022. Those are tumbocrats,” ODM chairman John Mbadi had said.
