The Kenya Kwanza army, commanded by Deputy President William Ruto, stormed the North-Eastern area on Wednesday last week to popularize his bottom-up economic platform.
During his week-long visit to the region, the front-runner for the 2022 presidential election held a series of political rallies and economic conferences.
Thousands of residents, especially vegetable sellers and boda boda riders, who make up the majority of the hustler movement, turned up in significant numbers during William Ruto’s visit.
While some residents went out to hear what the presidential candidate had in store for them, others were encouraged to attend in order to give the impression that the DP is more popular than Raila Odinga, his bitter rival.
Among those who attended William Ruto’s rallies were boda boda operators in the area who were allegedly promised some payments for gracing Deputy President William Ruto’s rally.
The riders, however, claim that they have yet to get their promised token since the march ended last week.
On Friday last week, the group walked to the streets to protest as they marched to the Mandera Police Station to report a failed transaction.
Some United Democratic Alliance (UDA) leaders from the region, according to the riders, went AWOL with their dues.
“We were hired by a Member of County Assembly (MCA) connected to the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to escort the Deputy President from the airport to a hotel across town, but the guy has vanished with our salary,” one of the boda boda operators, Yakub Abdi, stated.
However, a source at Mandera Police Station acknowledged that the boda boda drivers had gone there, but that they were unable to file a report because the operators had failed to show a formal agreement. “The boda boda operators were here, but we weren’t able to receive their complaints because they didn’t have a written agreement to base their complaint on,” the source added.
