With elections fourteen months away, the President is shoring up his political base where it matters most.
By Annita Njoki
President William Ruto yesterday met more than 5,000 Kalenjin elders from the North and South Rift at Eldoret State Lodge, Uasin Gishu County, in a consultative session focused on development progress and regional unity.
The meeting covered infrastructure, agricultural reform and youth employment, with Ruto committing to fast-track priority programmes across the region. The gathering adopted “Usawa ni Sawa, Mbele Pamoja” — meaning “Equity is Right, Forward Together” — as a rallying call for unity and shared prosperity.
The scale and timing of the meeting were unmistakable. With the August 2027 general election now fourteen months away, consolidating the Rift Valley — the electoral bedrock of Ruto’s 2022 victory — is not merely good governance. It is political necessity. The President’s standing nationally has faced sustained pressure from a resurgent opposition, rising living costs and the fallout from the anti-government protests of 2024. Returning to Eldoret with 5,000 elders and a unifying slogan signals that his campaign for a second term has quietly begun.
The Kalenjin vote delivered the presidency once. Ruto is making certain it is not taken for granted the second time.
Some of the moments as captured in pictures
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