Last month, Raila visited parts of Rift Valley and held meetings with leaders he wants to work with as he prepares to run for president in 2017 for the fourth time.
Reports further indicate that Raila met Ruto and Nick Salat at Silver Springs Hotel owned with Mwai Kibaki where a scheme to work together was discussed but not exhausted.
Sources say Raila is keen to reap big from the political fallout between Ruto and his allies, including Bomet governor Isaac Ruto who sources say is in the process of registering a party that will join the Cord coalition ahead of 2017 elections. It is understood that Governor Ruto wants to improve his bargaining power by having his own party.
Those who have been watching political events as they unfold in Rift Valley say that the governor is also expected to work closely with Kanu secretary general Salat, to attempt to broker a partnership with Kanu, led by Baringo senator Gideon Moi, before seeking an alliance with Cord.
As ODM leader, Raila will demonstrate to the court that ODM never planned the post-election chaos and that Ruto was by then a member of ODM’s Pentagon which led Raila’s campaigns against Kibaki of PNU.
Two things point to Raila’s willingness to defend Ruto. One is that it was under Raila’s orders that then ODM secretary general Anyang’ Nyong’o withdrew a case he had filed in court against then Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa who had alleged that he had written a letter to the ICC implicating Ruto and other accused persons.
According to Wamalwa, the letter was signed by Nyong’o in March 2011 and it exposed the role of the Kisumu senator in implicating Ruto in his case at the Hague-based court.
