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Governor Ruto plans grand comeback after treatment in South Africa


Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto has planned four rallies on his return from South Africa where he has been receiving treatment following an altercation with the police.

The vocal and rebellious governor will arrive in the country on Friday evening before attending rallies on Saturday and Sunday, both in Bomet and neighbouring Narok counties.

“Governor Ruto has been given the all clear by doctors to travel back home on Friday. He will, however, go back to South Africa for another appointment with the ophthalmologist in mid-December,” the Bomet county director of information Kiprotich Samoei said in a statement on Wednesday.

UNDISCLOSED HOSPITAL

Mr Ruto was Tuesday last week flown to an undisclosed South African hospital after a nose injury during an altercation with the police at Silibwet Stadium in Bomet on November 6.

Since then, the governor has received immense support with Bomet residents holding demonstrations in various towns in the county protesting what they said was harassment of the county boss.

The events to welcome the governor who has been painted by his fellow governors and a section of Bomet residents as an unfortunate victim of police brutality are complete, Mr Samoei said.

On Saturday morning, Governor Ruto will meet friends and family in Nairobi before a meeting with the Council of Governors.

He will then make stopovers in Narok and Ololung’a towns in neighbouring Narok County before going to Mulot on the Narok-Bomet border.

“His supporters in Narok will host him for a meeting in Narok and Olulung’a towns, then he will be received at Mulot by Bomet County residents before being escorted home,” Mr Samoei said in a statement on Wednesday.

PRAYER RALLY

But the culmination of the governor’s grand return journey will be a prayer rally at the Bomet Stadium on Sunday.

In the prayer rally to start at 10am, Mr Samoei said many “local and national leaders are expected to join Governor Ruto”.

Bomet residents this weekend staged protests with bandages on their noses- where the governor was hurt- in solidarity against what they said were increasing cases of police brutality.

Governor Ruto fell out with Deputy President William Ruto, with the county boss turning to a bitter foe and one of his harshest critics in the Rift Valley.

He refused to join the newly formed Jubilee Party and instead formed the Chama Cha Mashinani, a party he says will fight for devolution.

Governors had released a scathing statement in which they accused the police of high-handedness in the altercation at the Silibwet Stadium.

“The police service must not be used as a political weapon against dissenting voices in Kenya. Such acts are unacceptable and untenable,” council chairman Peter Munya had said in a statement.