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History beckons for William Ruto as he starts journey to seek presidency

 

Deputy President William Ruto and his wife Rachel arrive at Uhuru Gardens for the 59th Madaraka Day celebrations on June 1, 2022. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

 

Today, the assertive Deputy President William Samoei Ruto stares at a historical record in Kenyan politics as the first principal assistant seeking to replace his boss, who is a sitting president.  

The achievement of this feat is epochal, considering that the 55-year-old politician has fallen out with President Uhuru Kenyatta and will be going against a heavy political tide.

A victory for Ruto, who presents his nomination papers to the electoral body at Nairobi’s Bomas of Kenya this morning, will also making him set another record as the first politician – besides the first President Jomo Kenyatta and his successor Daniel arap Moi, who was not subjected to a competitive race – to clinch the presidency on first attempt.  

After his date with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Ruto, who has staged an electrifying campaign under the “hustler movement” mantra, will proceed to address his supporters at Nairobi’s Kamukunji grounds. The choice of Kamukunji is deliberate and appropriate.

According to Prof Amukowa Anangwe, a key member of Ruto’s think-tank, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) leader has purposed to move “closer to the people”. Kamukunji is regarded by the Ruto brigade as “hustler territory” – thanks to the large presence of jua kali artisans, vegetable and fish traders as well as petty traders in the area.       

Utilising state resources and the advantage of incumbency as the second in command, Ruto has been on the campaign trail for nearly seven years – right from the moment campaigns for his and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election peaked in 2016. This, as Prof Anangwe aptly observes, gives the DP a head-start in the August poll.  

“This has accorded him unrivalled opportunity to cover a lot of ground across the country, at a time when he was more or less competing against himself with no challenger in sight,” says Prof Anangwe, a member of Ruto’s think-tank.

The DP’s main challenger, Raila Odinga, who will be flying the flag of the rival Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya coalition party, only publicly declared his intension of vying for presidency last December at Nairobi’s Moi International Sports Complex, Kasarani.

Observing that Ruto “has worked very hard” to achieve his current political status and acquire a substantial voter base, the political scientist singles out the DP’s biological age, agility and physical energy as the key advantageous factors.

Admittedly, the last leg of the campaign has not been an easy one as observed by Kenya Kwanza coalition insiders. The indefatigable Ruto is said to have physically stretched his main partners, Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula of Amani National Congress (ANC) and Ford-Kenya, among others, through rough patches and terrains on the campaign trail, occasionally leaving their shoes and outfits with visible blots of dirt.

Save for a few days when he has had official engagements in the office or on a tour overseas, Ruto has over the last two years been on a campaign trail courting voters from morning to late evening. UDA operatives say the rallies average 11 per day, or seven, plus a consultative forum – according to Chama Cha Kazi leader Moses Kuria.

“With three campaign teams headed by the DP, his running mate Rigathi Gachagua and Musalia each doing an average of seven rallies and a consultative forum, this works to 21 rallies a day among the three groups. We work extremely hard as compared to our rivals who cover much lesser ground daily by staging fewer rallies,” states Kuria. In his usual style, Ruto personally takes charge during the rallies, including the joint ones where all teams are present. The notion behind acting as master of ceremony in the rallies, explains Anangwe, is for purposes of time management, and control of the thread of conversation with a view of ensuring no speaker veers off from the script.

Kuria attributes the hard work and unity to the fact that Ruto “is in the opposition”: “We in the opposition have no problem making sacrifices or working as a team, which explains why we are progressing well and fast. Laxity and hitches of unity are on the government (Azimio) side, where everyone thinks they have already clinched the top prize.”   

That Ruto, a Deputy President in the current government, who was elected into office in March 2013, has easily fashioned himself as an outsider of a government he jointly formed with Uhuru, is a reality that puzzles many.

Ruto comes through as a master of double-speak, who has been complaining about poll rigging during his last trip to the US and last Thursday while meeting Nairobi-based envoys from the European Union, yet on the local scene he has told his audience that he cannot easily be rigged out and even at one point told his supporters that whether or not Dr Oburu Oginga – elder brother to Raila – was made chairman of the electoral body, he would still win the poll.

And whilst he initially attacked his rivals for what he termed “leading tribal outfits” and “advancing the ethnic agenda”, Ruto has changed approach on voter mobilidation. He has quietly but vigorously organising various ethnic groups around a poll agenda and making commitments to each.

And after criticising opponents for building a coalition around what he termed “tribal chiefs”, Ruto who had initially opted to form a single powerful party eventually opened doors for partners, with Mudavadi and Wetang’ula being the first to get on board.

Pundits believe this is Ruto’s major tactical approach and playing the victim or underdog is another one. In any fight, explains Prof Luke Okunya, there is always a perceived champion and the underdog. The expert on human psychology says the same scenario is replicated in political contests “whereby society tends to sympathise with the underdog”.

“In the current political situation, our DP seems to have perfected the art of playing the underdog. He has pulled away from the powers that be and is projecting himself as a poor political orphan. And when the champion’s blows miss the target we laugh at him but when the underdog’s land, we cheer along excitedly,” explains the senior psychology lecturer at the University of Nairobi.   

In the August polls, the DP comes up against formidable opposition of a sitting President and opposition chief. Others are former Vice President, Kalonzo Musyoka, and one-time Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister, Martha Karua, who is Raila’s running mate.     

“No doubt, these are very powerful opponents in themselves, not to mention that Raila is a veteran politician who is enjoying support of state machinery. But this could backfire too, considering that the people, who are economically burdened by this government, are keen on voting it out together with those associated with it,” opines Prof Anangwe.

Separately, historian, Prof Macharia Munene, singles out Ruto as the President’s principal assistant who – in Kenya’s history – has so far nursed “serious ambition” and staged a “most powerful, well oiled and sustained” campaigns for presidency.

‘System’s boy’

“He is not just your ordinary Number Two attempting to replace his boss. He is a very serious candidate, and this explains why his candidature has generated excitement amongst his supporters, rivals as well as government,” observes Prof Munene, who teaches at the United States International University (USIU)-Africa.

Except for the short period in 2007 when he teamed up with Raila to challenge Kibaki, Ruto has mostly been a “system’s boy”, aligning himself with the powers that be. Even that year, the then Eldoret North MP ended up in a Grand Coalition Government as Agriculture minister following the disputed polls. 

The other thing that Ruto has to overcome is the corruption tag, which he has acquired – rightly or wrongly – over the time.

“Ruto’s propensity of wealth and property acquisition, as well as power and influence, have all been courtesy of his long period in government. His lowest moments in his political career were perhaps when he was out of power,” says Prof Anangwe.

National Assembly’s Minority Whip, Junet Mohamed, separately attributes Ruto’s “problems”, to the fact that he kicked off campaigns from the presidential race rather too early: “He started too early and the only thing that can happen to him now, including in Mt Kenya region where he had placed all his hopes, is to continue losing numbers. For us it is the opposite – we can only gain.”