DP Ruto Giving His Last Respects At Late Laboso’s Funeral Service
Deputy President William Ruto has revealed how he informed the late Joyce Laboso’s decision to drop her husband’s name for her maiden name when she plunged into politics back in the year 2008.
Speaking during the former Bomet governor’s Memorial Service in Nairobi on Thursday, the DP recounted the behind the scenes intrigues that followed the death of Joyce’s younger sister, Lorna, in a plane crash while serving as the MP for Sotik.
According to the DP, he was among those who fronted Joyce as the area’s next MP to succeed her late sister.
But then there was the little matter of Laboso’s inter-ethic marriage, which initially presented a stumbling block to her.
HUSBAND’S NAME
“As a bigger boy in politics, Joyce pulled me aside and told me there is a small matter she wanted to tell me before she finally made her decision. She told me, ‘You know my husband is Mr Abonyo and the way you know this politics it might become an issue’. I told her, ‘Joyce we will craft a message to deal with that and we will insist you are the daughter of Mr Laboso’,” Ruto narrated.
The DP said he further advised Laboso to talk to her husband to make him understand why she was dropping his name.
“Please ask Edwin not to mind if we do not put his name in our arrangements. And I want to say from that moment I realized Joyce had a super human being for a husband,” Ruto told the mourners.
POLITICAL CAREER
The DP also said that he and Laboso were more of a brother and a sister, to the extent he would chide her if she wore a short skirt to a public event.
This, he said, made Laboso carry a leso to every event she attended with the DP.
“I remember many times I kept telling her in our community you must present yourself in this way so that people respect you and whenever she put on a skirt not too long I would tell her, ‘Joyce, this skirt is short’,” Ruto said.
The DP praised Laboso’s husband, Dr Edwin Abonyo, for supporting his wife’s political career and for standing with her to the end.
