By Betty Luke
Nearly two months after Deputy President William Ruto was heckled by youths in Isiolo during his visit to fundraise for 70 churches in Ngaremara, some youths have come out and claimed that they were paid by one of the local elected leaders.
The hundreds of youths on February 13 booed Dr Ruto and an entourage of Tangatanga MPs in Isiolo town while chanting pro-BBI slogans and rubbishing his Hustler narrative forcing the leader to cut short his speech and sped off.
In the video that trended for more than a week, the DP was heard asking the rowdy youths “Tuko pamoja” and a loud voice responded “Hatuko pamoja” meaning we are not together.
A section of the youths, who purport to have taken part in the heckling, on Thursday claimed that they were paid by Governor Mohammed Kuti to shout at the leader and disrupt his meeting.
Mr Said Chege said Dr Kuti reached out to them a day earlier and asked them to shout “Yoya”, which is his known campaign slogan.
“He (Governor) told us to go and shout Yoya and because of our desperation, we agreed to go and do the work,” Mr Chege claimed while not specifying what they were reportedly promised in return.
The youths apologized to the DP saying they had realized that what they did was wrong.
“We have decided to come out and apologize to Dr Ruto because what we did to him was bad. We were sent by the Governor and we have a recording of him asking us to boo the leader,” said Mr Omar Ahmed.
“We have decided to apologize on media and we are asking for his forgiveness because we respect him,” he added.
Residents shared mixed reactions following the news with a majority of them wondering why the youths who claimed to be the ones who booed Dr Ruto decided to confess 54 days later.
Some were of the feeling that the youths were paid by Governor Kuti’s foes to tarnish his name for their own selfish gain.
Governor Kuti was unreachable for a comment over the allegations.
