Uhuru to Ruto: Why come after my family?

“Power is fleeting. Power is temporary,” was former President Mr Uhuru Kenyatta’s fiery message to his successor and the fifth President Mr William Ruto on Monday in a session with editors.

Responding to questions on the unfolding scenario of ‘targeting and humiliation’ by his successor, whom he readily concedes he did not support but lost the tussle in the last Presidential election, Uhuru told Ruto: “Power comes and goes, do your best for your people, not the people around you”.

Speaking to the journalists from the mainstream media the former President when asked if he would go meet Ruto if he were to ask him to, he responded: “He is my President now, I would do exactly as he asks me to do.”

“I was a frequent visitor to Kabarak and Kabarnet Gardens (residences of the Second President late Daniel Arap Moi) and Muthaiga (where the third President late Mwai Kibaki resided). I was the one who as President then, initiated the visit when I felt there was a matter over which I needed to either consult them or get their perspective”.

“Sometimes you leave somethings to God, do your part and go,’’ said the son of the founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who on his own right ascended to power in 2012 after he was whitewashed by the Opposition candidate (Kibaki) in 2002 after Mzee Moi picked on him as his preferred successor.

“You remember (Uhuru) Project, that is what some of you in this room called me when I first ran and lost. I have had my share of losses and nasty experiences in politics for more than 40 years. I am now 62 even if some still call me kamwana (greenhorn)”

The former President cut the demeanour of a retired leader at peace, until recent events of course, with his jokes and casual outfit – his trademark long-sleeved dotted shirts from Eldoret-based Moi University’s Rivatex Cotton Mills, khaki trousers and brown Safari boots.

Uhuru was a man at home, even joking that he would have preferred that the meeting took place at his new ranch in Transmara. “As you can see, here (his Caledonia home right next to State House) is still under construction. Next time I will invite you to Masailand then slaughter a bull for you. But for now, I don’t stay here, I just come and go. The same to Mama (his wife and former First Lady Margaret).”

**Former President Uhuru Kenyatta (centre) poses for a photo after a session with editors on July 24, 2023.** [Courtesy, 4th President's media]

Uhuru, the only surviving former tenant of the coveted proverbial office on the hill, however, maintained that his successor had not treated him with the respect and decorum befitting his position as an immediate former president.

“I had to send part of my security to my mother’s place after they were withdrawn at night. “Whatever they have against the Kenyatta Family they should know that the rights and privileges my mother enjoys (former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta) are constitutionally guaranteed, “even if I was not a former President”.

Uhuru ruefully pointed out the fact that he has no free hand to choose members of his security detail, the contracts of most of the staff he chose to work for him on retirement were still pending, and even payment for the building he chose as his official retirement wasn’t forthcoming.

Asked what could have gone wrong between him and the current President, who was his running-mate and subsequently Deputy President in 2013 and 2017, President Uhuru slid back to his mood last Friday at the home of his son, when government security personnel turned up as the sun set on Nairobi, ostensibly to search for arms.

“Ask him (Ruto) what the problem is, I have nothing against him. I supported a candidate and we lost because of reasons my leader in Azimio (Alliance, Mr Raila Odinga) has stated. I have no more interest in politics and State power. I handed over peacefully, and I have no regrets”.

“I have no hand in the people who guard me, I just get into my vehicle and then ask the driver, huyu ni nani leo (who is this we have today?”

He traces the root of hostility from Ruto and his new power team to his decision to push on for the handshake with Raila after the heated and annulled, then repeat the 2017 election.

“He was against it but I felt the country would not move forward with the alienation of one side of the country’s key political blocs.

“In hindsight, imagine if (2019) Corona came (and shut down the country) with Raila fighting us!” the former President who was regaling with laughter upon some of his reflections in office, said.

But he quickly paused, looked around the room packed with more than 20 editors and retorted: “You asked if I feel like a hunted man, I hate those terminologies. But my answer is I don’t exactly feel so. I can say I am more baffled. What reason do they have (to go at me)?”

Still, on the delicate matter of his acrimonious falling out with Ruto, Uhuru hilariously stoked the unpleasant memories of his days at The Hague where faced trial together with his successor, after the contested 2007 elections and the subsequent bloodletting. “I did not want to go back to ICC. I had been there. I knew every cell, where you will not be told not to sit. No, I did not want to go back there, and neither should anyone (meaning any other Kenyan)”.

After a pause, his eyes lit up he chuckled: “I knew every corner; where to get the best sandwich, beer and where the smoking corners were”. Interestingly, at The Hague, he sat on the suspect benches with Ruto, a man Uhuru now perceives as gleefully presiding over the torment of the larger Kenyatta Family.

“I am sure all of you in this room would rush to defend your children if they are under attack. I did what any father would do. They came in a foreign-plated vehicle, and presented no papers, just quoting “orders from above”.

He explained that on that Friday evening last week his son Jomo called him to say he had unidentified security guests demanding that he opens up for them. “He called me and shared the CCTV footage. The guys sent were even junior to my head of security but they were insistent they be let in. I said no and drove there.”