In the run-up to the 2013 general election, Musa Sirma, then-Eldama Ravine MP told current Deputy President William Ruto that he did not have Kalenjin votes in his pocket to determine how they vote.
The then Minister for East Africa Community had been appointed to Cabinet after a falling out between Ruto (then-Eldoret North MP) and then-Prime Minister Raila Odinga. He was campaigning for the ODM chief to succeed President Mwai Kibaki.
The falling-out with Raila saw Ruto chart his own political path. He bolted out of ODM to UDM briefly before founding his own vehicle, the United Republican Party which entered into a coalition with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s defunct TNA.
Sirma, with prominent politicians such as former ODM chairman and Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey, former Roads minister Franklin Bett, former Agriculture minister Sally Kosgei, former Higher Education minister Margaret Kamar and former Kipkelion MP Magerer Langat stood by Raila and Cord in the run-up to the 2013 poll despite the URP-TNA wave that swept the Rift Valley.
First, forward to the build-up to the 2017 general election and Sirma warmed up to the Ruto camp, left Cord and joined Jubilee.
However, during the Jubilee primaries, he was beaten by Moses Lesonet.
It resulted in another bad blood between Sirma and the DP, a situation that saw the former shift base to Kanu chairman and Baringo Senator Gideon Moi.
Sirma was among the leading lights in Rift Valley that teamed up with Kanu luminaries to campaign for the now voided Building Bridges Initiative.
Following the strong wave of Ruto and his UDA that is sweeping Rift Valley, early this month, Sirma who was in the company of Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi revealed that he was paying attention to the voices of the people of Rift Valley and will announce his next move soon.
On Monday Sirma said he was rejoining Ruto because of his conviction and resolve to unite Rift Valley behind the DP ahead of the August 9, 2022, election.
He said leaders from Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu-the three communities dominant in Rift Valley have resolved to back the DP.
“I am now in UDA on the invitation and the long talks we have had with the deputy president. We want to march to the 2022 general election as a strong team,” he told the Star.
“The DP has demonstrated his commitment to addressing the economic challenges facing Kenyans and we will work together to deliver on the hustler movement’s bottom-up economic model.”
Sirma said, going forward, he has a responsibility to talk to fellow leaders who are yet to board the hustler movement ship.
“We want all of us in Rift Valley just to be part of this mighty movement which clearly shows Ruto is our next President,” he said.
Sirma who said he will in two weeks be announcing the seat he will be vying for in next year’s election said he played a critical role in Ruto’s political journey.
In January 2006 Sirma was among 14 MPs who had converged at Koibatek, Baringo and declared their support for Ruto in the 2007 elections.
Ruto was eyeing the ODM ticket in the 2007 presidential election.
Sirma was the key force behind the Eldama Ravine declaration that propelled Ruto from an ordinary but aggressive Eldoret North MP to the position of Kalenjin community spokesman.
