Former Cabinet minister Franklin Bett has said he did not seek any elective position in Kericho County in the last General Elections because he knew the region was a URP zone.
Mr Bett, a member of ODM, said the euphoria that Mr William Ruto’s party had caused in the region made him realise that his party did not have a chance.
To save his face, he thought it wise not to contest but prepare himself for “bigger things” in future, the former Bureti MP at the weekend in Sotik.
The former lawmaker has been quoted in the media saying he stayed away from contesting the elections as a political retreat to prepared himself to vie for the Presidency in 2017.
The former State House comptroller who served President Moi spoke at Kipkitii village in Sotik sub-county during the homecoming ceremony for nominated Bomet County assembly member Ms Beatrice Chebomui.
“I knew that even without vying for any seat I could still mingle with political leaders in the South Rift region on matters related to development in forums like this one of today,” he said.
Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto, who was present, said governors would not stop asking for more funds for counties.
Mr Bett insisted that ODM was in the frontline fighting for devolution in the country and declared the support for the council of governors under the chair of Mr Rutto for pushing for more funds to be released to the counties.
He said Kenyans would only realise the gains of the new constitution if funds were devolved to the grassroots levels as opposed to retaining bulk of it at the national government.
Mr Bett said that as much as URP supporters and a section of other Kenyan communities voted against the constitution, including governor Rutto, that was a thing of the past and there was now need for leaders to concentrate on the implementation of projects that they promised the electorates during the campaigns.
On his part governor Rutto said it was not true that URP and other quarters were against the constitution but rather that they wanted some contentious clauses to be amended before the document was promulgated.
Mr Rutto pointed out that he had advocated for regional representation so that the residents of rift valley province could have retained Nakuru town as the regions former provincial headquarters as was the case with other counties.
The chair of the council of governors said that the body had not relented in a fight to have more funds are released to the counties adding that if the Jubilee government expected to achieve its double digit and propel economic growth, these funds had to be disbursed to the grass root levels.
He said that it was wrong for members of the national assembly to mislead Kenyans to believing that more than 32 per cent of the national revenue had been released to the counties.
He added that the money they were talking about was merely an audited account of 2010/2011 fiscal year and that they were demanding for 45 per cent of the same to be structured in the next budget.
Source-nation.co.ke
Revealed URP Wave Scared Franklin Bett from Elections
