Deputy President William Ruto is set to storm ODM leader Raila Odinga’s Nyanza political turf as he tests his popularity 13 months to next year’s epic presidential contest.

Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta gave Luo Nyanza a wide berth in their 2013 and 2017 campaigns. They instead pitched camps in Kisii and Kuria regions.

The Nyanza tour, coming at a time when some leaders from the region, including the DP’s long-time friend Migori Governor Okoth Obado, are gravitating towards the DP is planned for mid-next month.

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But ahead of the visit, it has also emerged that Ruto is set to open a UDA office in the US as part of his strategy to widen his networks and woo diaspora voters. He will virtually officiate the opening on Friday.

“He (Ruto) is in Kenya but he will virtually attend the opening of a UDA office on Friday,” Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang’ata, who is already in the US for the event, told the Star.

The office will coordinate the party activities, including registration of diaspora members and mobilisation of campaign resources in the USA and the neighbouring countries.

The event comes barely two months after the DP held a six-hour virtual meeting with some Kenyans in the US, the Middle East, South Africa and Australia as he moved to charm the diaspora.

During the session, Ruto promised to create a full-fledged ministry dedicated to diaspora matters.

“It is time we had a fully dedicated ministry for diaspora just like the way we have a ministry for devolution. The ministry will be addressing all the challenges facing Kenyans in every part of the world,” he said.

On Sunday, Ruto’s Nyanza pointman Eliud Owalo, who is Raila’s former campaign manager, revealed Ruto’s intensive tour of the four Luo counties starting mid-next month.

“In the two-legged tour, he will visit Migori and Kisumu counties in the third week of July 2021 followed closely by a tour of Homa Bay and Siaya counties in the fourth week of July 2021,” Owalo said.

Owalo divulged that Ruto will use the visit to directly engage the residents and preside over “economic empowerment programmes” for youth and women’s groups.

“Consultations with relevant hustler nation stakeholders are currently underway and intrinsic details of the itinerary will be communicated once the planning and logistical arrangements for the tour are complete,” he said.

The tour will be the culmination of behind-the-scenes activities by his allies to penetrate the region, which has been perceived as hostile to his ambitions.

Last week, the Star established that in the last few weeks, Ruto allies have been reaching out to Governor Obado who has fallen out with Raila’s ODM to join his camp.

Obado is revamping his former party, the People Democratic Party. The DP’s men are reportedly scheming to have PDP enter into a pre-election deal with UDA.

“As Kuria community, we are firmly on course to vote in Ruto as our next president; we are in UDA and will work with any other parties towards this end,” Kuria East MP Marwa Kitayama, an ally of the DP, said.

Obado’s friendship with DP Ruto dates back to the time when the governor served at the defunct Kenya Sugar Board. Ruto was then the Minister for Agriculture. Obado has hosted the DP several times against ODM’s wishes.

Barely a month ago, some Nyanza professionals, among them politicians, met in a strategy meeting and crafted an economic blueprint for the region.

The document will form part of Ruto’s main manifesto, underpinning his presidential run after his acrimonious divorce from President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Ruto has already assembled an economic think tank comprising to craft what he calls a bottom-up economic model that he hopes will transform the country.

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