Nairobi News

Johnstone Muthama appears increasingly sidelined within William Ruto’s political circle with the clock fast ticking towards the August 9 polls.

The seasoned politician has been off the radar in recent times as he trains his sights on winning the Machakos gubernatorial seat.

Despite currently serving as Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) chairman, the prominent businessman is rarely seen accompanying the Deputy President on the political trail in the Ukambani region.

Analysts have observed that Ruto appears to prefer outgoing governor Alfred Mutua and Mike Sonko to accompany him or run his errands in Machakos.

Worse, Muthama appears to have political enemies within Ruto’s cycle in the frame of Mutua.

Mutua recently publicly backed Wiper candidate Wavinya Ndeti instead of Muthama for the gubernatorial seat.

This is despite the fact that Ndeti is in the opposing camp while Muthama is supposed to be his political partner.

That aside, a number of opinion polls have Muthama, who broke ranks with regional kingpin Kalonzo Musyoka and Raila Odinga in favour of Ruto, faring dismally.

Muthama and Ndeti are battling it out with CCU party leader Nzioka Waita, and ELP party boss Rose Mulwa.

A recent poll commissioned by Infotrak suggests Ndeti is poised to win the Machakos top seat with a 46 percent margin.

Nzioka, a former Chief of Staff at State House is second at 25 percent, with Muthama a distant third at 9 percent.