Azimio La Umoja flagbearer Raila Odinga has blamed Deputy President William Ruto for the ugly violence that rocked his UDA rally at Jacaranda grounds in Nairobi County on Sunday.
Raila, in a statement issued by his spokesperson Dennis Onyango, denied wild allegations by Ruto that he had hired goons to disrupt his rally, blaming the DP for disrupting his own rally.
According to the former Prime Minister, Ruto sponsored the Jacaranda chaos to provoke instability in his Rift Valley political backyard to result in the eviction of non-Kalenjins.
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“It is not beyond Ruto to sponsor the disruption of his own rally so that he can have an excuse to start ethnic cleansing back at home,” said Raila in the statement.
He also lambasted the DP saying he had paid hundreds of youth to attend his Jacaranda UDA campaign rally saying that was sufficient to cause the violence witnessed on Sunday.
“It also ought to be understood that the youths were being paid to attend the Jacaranda rally today. Either Ruto ran out of money or the people he trusted with the money did not pay all the youths,” he added.
At the Sunday rally, Ruto accused Raila of allegedly hiring youths to stone rally attendants but did not provide any evidence to support the claims echoed by leaders in attendance.
In a rejoinder, the ODM chief accused Ruto of using chaos in his quest for power.
“Violence has been part and parcel of Ruto’s brand of politics right from the time he introduced himself to Kenyans through the YK92, through 1997 to 2008. Other than the use of money to buy support, violence is Ruto’s main tool for political ascendance,” Raila stated.
At the same time, a pick-up belonging to Citizen TV was stoned by rowdy youth while covering the rally by the DP at Jacaranda Grounds.
Reporters told Citizen Digital that the vehicle was among several that had born the brunt of the violence that rocked the rally as it tried to avoid the chaos.
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