Why William Ruto has every reason to panic

 

President William Ruto makes his remarks during the 2026 Kalasha Awards at KICC. [PCS]

Political analyst Martin Oloo avers that Ruto’s utterances in Bomet point to panic and a desperate bid to rally his backyard.

“The President has every reason to panic. There are bases that he had, and they are now shaky. Two of them are Rift Valley and Central Kenya, and chances are that he has lost the Mt Kenya region, but he has tried and continues to try to win over their support. President Ruto’s worry now is that those in the Rift Valley are not coming out in numbers to register as voters. They might not oppose him, but if they do not turn up to vote on the material day to vote, he is doomed,” said Oloo.

“The President knows he is in power today because, in the run-up to the 2022 general elections, he was undisputed. He may not be fully supported now and knows that he cannot afford not to mobilise to the last person in Rift Valley, and that is why he must retreat and fight from there,” he added.

And to emphasise the regional nature of Kenyan politics, he said, “Every time politicians are in danger, they run back to their people, so when you see them running back to the ground, they are running to go and seek empathy. Our politics are regional, and people rally around Kingpins. Our politicians thrive at the regional level, and that is what you see when President Ruto runs back to his backyard. You see Gachagua saying that if you don’t talk to him, you cannot access the Mt Kenya votes.”

Ishmael Nyaribo, while faulting the Head of State for being among the leaders taking advantage of tribal groupings to pursue their political agenda, avers that President Ruto’s utterances in Bomet exposed his concern over the opposition’s surging influence across the country.

“I’m not sure the President has panicked, but he is concerned that the numbers he used to have dwindled completely, and he has to rush and see if the people of his Rift Valley backyard can give him support. It is a clear indication that the opposition has done its groundwork. All that remains is for the opposition to strategise on how to handle systems and how to get people to be endeared to them,” he says.

 Adding, “Politicians know that a particular regional grouping will never see itself as a national grouping and what the leaders are doing is taking advantage. The President is supposed to unify all those tribal or regional groupings; he’s a symbol of national unity.”

He added: “His remarks show how defeatist it is because the Head of State has been castigating Gachagua and it now looks like he is winning because he has been telling leaders to go back to their people.