If the David Lang’at who will sqaure it out with ODM leader Raila Odinga and Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati in the party leader position is the same David Lang’at who has given Jubilee Alliance sleepless nights after being outfoxed by Ruto in the Standard Railway gauge, then folks, consider 2017 politics another earth-shattering duel pitting money, influence, vengeance and payback against a state machinery that will most likely lose the election if, holy hell, they don’t rig it again! We at Kenya Today will be seeking more information from Orange House because this may just be the beginning of the end of Rift Valley politics in the Jubilee Alliance. Lang’at, a behind-the-scenes powerhouse, is a different bull altogether! For starters, David Lang’at has recently been in the news, albeit hidden in the shadows. His physical manifestation is in the person of Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter and the continued onslaught on the bungled railways tender. Lang’at is among the wealthy Kalenjin businessmen who bankrolled the URP money campaigns believing that with Ruto at the helm, the Jubilee alliance will be 50-50 power deal in word and action, yaani tenders, employment et cetera. However, Ruto has dismally delivered on the promise and as a community watches its hopes dwindle in government that essentially is a ‘kikuyu affair’ (you only need to review the intricacies over the railway and the appointments in government so far), most of its outspoken sons have come out to pour their frustrations in the open. David Lang’at is not your typical kalenjin politician hanging on the freebies of William Ruto to survive. He was among the first politicians from the region to use a chopper to campaign in Nandi where he ran against Henry Kosgey both in 1997 and 2002. In both instances, he lost, for Kosgey was not just henry but a political mafia towering then KANU hegemonic politics. In 2002, Kosgey would trounce back to parliament even as KANU suffered a humbling defeat. Luckily, Kosgey would get a free nomination on an ODM ticket in 2007, suffocating all potential chances at a time Rift Valley was euphoric in ODM. Lang’at is more of a Ruto checkmate. He is among the wealthiest kalenjins, and something of a government in Nandi where he is running two tea farms which employs thousands of jobless kalenjins. He is believed to own a bank, has a transport and logistics company and several hotels at the coast, including the luxury sunrise Hotel in Nyali, Mombasa’s North Coast tourist gateway. Meaning, in pooling resources to run a campaign, Lang’at is the kind whose money and connections ODM needs to revive its political machine to take on the current incumbency of Uhuru and Ruto. His entry in ODM is also not lost to keen observers having been short-changed in the Rail tender. He is alleged to be in touch with a wide base of Kalenjin professionals who see the Uhuru-Ruto alliance as a mockery of union of two communities. He is the man behind Isaac Rutto’s renewd onslaught on the Jubilee Alliance. Sources reveal more Kalenjin professionals entering politics have vowed to ‘correct’ the mistake Ruto did by selling the community to an alliance where it has become more of a wife than an equal a twin brother. Remember, names are similar, but should the David Lang’at of Nandi County be the one on the ODM ballot, I will repeat here: 2017 is for opposition unless they mess up so so massively that all these goodwill fades into oblivion.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 17:45:01 +0000
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