Of Wilson Airport incident and why Ruto could be his own worst enemy

Politics is rarely dull. Watching politics, as American humour columnist HL Menken quipped in the 1920s, is like going to the zoo. Occasionally, one or two animals dominate, only to turn on each other to establish the real animal boss. The number of bleeding casualties rise, ‘friendships’ break, and ‘enemies’ patch up in an effort to defeat a powerful opponent before reverting to routine character assassination.

As Kenyans approach 2022, they should brace for mini rises and drama episodes designed to propel or derail certain candidates or even change the rules of the political game. To justify political unreliability, players repeatedly announce that there are no friends or enemies in politics, only interests, and that a week in politics is long enough to overhaul everything.

This seems to be happening rapidly as ‘parties’ disintegrate, leaders beat themselves in the chest while seeking new allies, political temperature rises and confusion prevails at state level. The confusion arises from Deputy President William Ruto’s activities, whether public or private, which appear to be in conflict with the wishes of President Uhuru Kenyatta. While Uhuru is in his final constitutional term and concentrates on his legacy, which includes promoting his big ‘brother’ Raila Odinga, Ruto is a presidential candidate and sees Raila’s presence in government as threat to his interests.

Although Raila has been on a political slippery slope, he enjoys making Ruto uncomfortable. The two men distrust and compete with each other everywhere.  Their distrustful competition in turn affects the national political mood including the relations between Uhuru and Ruto. This new mood changed the Uhuru and Ruto public image, two men who once seemed like political twins. Their proxies often engage in skirmishes, and Ruto does not look good.

Ruto looked bad in an incident at Wilson Airport whose details are still murky. According to information in public domain was that Ruto was travelling to Uganda on a private mission.

The DP has visited Uganda before without fanfare and even privately engaged President Yoweri Museveni. He said on Inooro TV that his trip was to facilitate the Turk, who was to travel with him, to receive Sh15 billion from Equity Bank to invest in Uganda to produce vaccines. Many questions and issues arose. Equity Bank quickly denied that it had anything to do with the said investment. Uganda officially denied it knew anything about Ruto’s intended trip.

Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu pointedly asked why the DP would use a Kenyan bank to assist a Turkish national to invest in a country other than Kenya. In Ngilu’s question was the issue of primary loyalty.

As a result, Ruto’s national credentials are on the chopping block. He has blundered big. He acquired an image of a political ‘Goliath’. He displays the pride of ‘Goliath’, ignoring danger signs as he dares rivals to send their best warrior. And since the rivals are competing among themselves on who should be the ‘David’ with a mythical slingshot to aim at Ruto, he watches them with blinding amusement. The decline of Ruto’s political fortunes, therefore, is likely to be due to self-inflicted Goliath-like pain, rather than what his political competitors do.