Has Ruto been ‘locked’ out of preparation plans for BBI rally in Nakuru?
Deputy President William Ruto appears to have been sidelined in the planning process of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) rally set for Nakuru on March 21.
This follows the DP’s conspicuous absence from a meeting where President Uhuru Kenyatta hosted nine Governors from the Rift Valley at State House in Nairobi on Monday.
The meeting’s main agenda was to plan for the BBI rally at the Afraha Stadium in Nakuru.
“The Governors assured the President of their full backing of the BBI process and undertook to ensure unity and inclusion of all stakeholders in the run-up to the Nakuru rally,” a statement by the President’s media team explains.
As the senior most politician from the Rift Valley and principal assistant to President Kenyatta, the Deputy President is at the very least expected to be at the forefront of planning for this meeting.
But he has recently suggested that he disagrees with a number of issues to do with its planning, even hinting his intentions to ‘stop reggae’, in reference to the BBI rallies most popular slogan, Nobody Can Stop Reggae.
What’s more, Ruto’s allies had recently vowed not to attend the Nakuru rally if President Kenyatta stays away, as he has done in the other meetings in Kisii, Kakamega, Mombasa and Meru.