Tough task for Ruto: How will he overcome Gema’s fear of an ‘outsider’ president?

Deputy President william Ruto greets some of the leaders who visited him at his Sugoi home in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, last Monday. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD

The fear by the Kikuyu of a government in which they have no control is the biggest hurdle confronting the Jubilee Party’s twin mission to secure President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election in 2017, and play launching pad for Deputy President William Ruto’s presidential contest in 2022.

The pervasive fear of forced repatriation of the most populous and peripatetic community — with as many members outside of the native Central Kenya as there are inside — drives the Kikuyu to cling to the safe and familiar: their own.