'He was smart, had a wonderful strategic team': Atwoli reveals how Ruto won 2022 poll

The Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has revisited the hotly contested 2022 presidential election, giving his opinion on why President Willam Ruto eventually emerged victor.

Atwoli, speaking on Citizen TV’s JKLive show on Wednesday night, admitted that President Ruto was smarter and had a superior campaign strategy than his then candidate of choice Raila Odinga, who flew the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party flag.

The vocal COTU boss spoke after he was taken to task by show host Jeff Koinange over his numerous hard-hitting and often-hilarious remarks during the campaign period dismissing Ruto’s candidature, ostensibly branding him a persona non-grata as far as the presidential race was concerned.

Atwoli, in response, stated that Ruto and his campaign thinktank won the election by not minding the noise that he and his Azimio cronies were spewing, but instead focusing on doing their homework properly, ensuring that all their t’s were crossed and i’s dotted.

“William was smart, and his smartness grew higher than what I was talking…maybe we didn’t have such a team in Azimio…He had a wonderful logistic and strategic committee to propel him to State House,” he said.

“Because all what we were saying, be it in public rallies, they were monitoring, sieving, focusing, collecting data based on it, and also assessing themselves. And then they say ‘this what Atwoli is saying, does not match with what is happening here…we can thwart it this way…’ And they succeeded getting the right answer more than what we used to say.”

The trade unionist came short of admitting that the Azimio side may have lost the election due to laxity brought about by the fact that they had the then sitting president on their side, hence enjoyed State resources.

“The best candidate wins because he has put proper mechanisms in place. We might have put a lot of mechanisms in place with a lot of hope…we have a president, we have askaris around us, we have the deep state, we go and sleep…and these chaps say ’we must go there, and this is our aim.’"

"When they meet in the evening, everyone produces a report, they compare with what Atwoli has said in a rally, and then Atwoli is overtaken by events for the purpose of strengthening your position to win an election. So William Samoei was smart, and I salute him from wherever he is.”