President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy President William Ruto used the might of their financial powers and influence to sabotage the historic Luhyia convergence rally in desperate last minute attempts to derail it.
As the rally unfolded on Saturday at Bukhungu stadium it emerged that a number of legislators, Members of County Assembly’s, leaders and their followers from all over the former western province counties had been bribed to stay away from the convergence rally.
It has since emerged that the week preceding the historic rally had seen President Kenyatta and his Deputy Ruto’s point men busy rounding up target leaders and personalities from the region buy them and compromise the rally from taking place.
The Jubilee principals are badly scared by the emerging unity of the region’s leadership with the ability to consolidate the second largest voting bloc in the country from the region that has over the decades been considered a hunting goldmine for Presidential aspirants in the country’s general elections.
The Bukhungu declaration rally heard that billions of shillings are every electioneering year splashed to leaders and the electorate of the region to compromise their ability to vote as a powerful bloc to lock out foreign political tourists who dump the areas interests after getting into office.
The recent past has seen President Kenyatta and his Deputy Ruto traversing the region in desperate attempts to woo the voters to their side with purported Jubilee Development projects after compromising a number of elected leaders from some of the counties led by Bungoma’s Kenneth Lusaka.
It must also not be forgotten that recently President Kenyatta sent emissaries to try and dissuade ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi from joining the Cord leaders in a highly publicized rally they were attending in Narok County – Mudavadi who was declared the western Kenya region Kingpin at the historic Bukhungu event in Kakamega town snubbed the President’s pleas and attended the rallies.
At the same time it must also not forgotten that it was the first time the leaders from the region were coming together in a massive show of unity to an event that they have been grappling to have but failed since independence to consolidate the region’s powerful voting bloc with one voice.
The panic the event triggered among the Jubilee proponents is so frightening that some of them have threatened to kill not only its architect COTU boss Francis Atwoli but also Lugari legislator Ayub Savula who has been one of the region’s legislators supporting the historic initiative.
Earlier some Jubilee hirelings had threatened to disrupt the event and stop it from taking place altogether forcing Atwoli to hit back with the declaration that anybody who attempted such move will be hit squarely with the full force of the law – this is a development that elicited massive government and private security to cover the occasion.
More than 500, 000 people are estimated to have attended from Busia, Bungoma, Kakamega, Vihiga, Trans Nzoia, Nakuru, Kericho, Migori, Nairobi counties among others from various parts of the country. The historic Western Kenya Convergence rally marks a defining moment for the political destiny of the region which may pose a major political threat to aspirants from other communities particularly from central and Rift Valley provinces where the Country’s incumbent leadership comes from-indeed it was a defining moment.
-additional reporting by Musa Radoli
