After the 2002 elections, Kanu was buried and Narc’s first order of business was to go after all corruption scandals and their perceived suspected masterminds in the previous regime.
Ruto was among those targeted by the hardliners in the Mwai Kibaki administration.
They were the likes of Martha Karua and Kiraitu Murungi, who, despite shielding the corrupt within the Kibaki’s inner circle, used corruption to selectively go after the chieftains of communities they didn’t like.
Ruto became the poster child of Narc’s anti-corruption campaign, with graft cases being thrown at him left, right and centre.
As the Constitutional Affairs Minister, Karua was a crucial player in passing the Kenyan case to the ICC, in which Ruto was a key suspect.
Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria admitted he and Karua gave false testimony to fix Ruto at the ICC.
And so DP Ruto’s acceptance of the Narc Kenya leader is a classic display of the mantra that “in politics, there are no permanent enemies or friends, just permanent interests”.
Ruto’s dalliance with Karua can be explained in different ways.
First is that Ruto and Karua have a common political enemy, and that’s the “NYS Sh791 million whistleblower” — Anne Waiguru.
Ruto’s lesser devil in that the governor race better be Karua’s, who seems to be at the right place at the right time. She just needs to join the Jubilee Party, clinch the ticket and she will close the deal.
Waiguru has been accused of undermining the DP by linking his aide, Farouk Kibet, to the NYS scandal. Ruto’s support of Karua will be about exacting sweet revenge on the former Devolution CS.
Second is the Peter Kenneth phenomenon. The greatest threat to Ruto’s rise to the presidency is the emergence of a formidable force in the Mt Kenya region. And so for the Deputy President, Karua’s rapprochements with Jubilee kills two birds with one stone.
An ambitious Iron Lady neutralises Waiguru, while serving as a counterweight to Kenneth’s rise to a Kikuyu kingpin.
The plot will thicken if you see former Kabete MP and 2013 presidential candidate Paul Muite being welcomed by the Ruto camp to introduce another centre of power messaged to keep “presidential motorbikes” from crossing the River Chania”.
Multiple competing centers in Central Kenya seem to be Ruto’s divide and rule secret strategy for Central. A myriad regional and national factors work in Karua’s favour.
You cant rule out civil society and Cord mandarins secretly pouring resources into Karua’s campaign to stop Waiguru — Cord leader Raila Odinga calls her an Uhuru protectorate. Karua is a “reformer”.
The opposition and civil society may plant moles to infiltrate the Jubilee tickets down the ballot.
And so you can expect a good number of Jubilee MPs, senators and governors to switch loyalty to President-elect Raila after the 2017 elections. In addition, a good number of Jubilee insiders find Waiguru a liability, whose best days are behind her.
Kirinyaga is grossly mismanaged, and the incumbent Governor Joseph Ndathi is vulnerable, and any focussed Karua political insurgency will easily defeat him. Waiguru represents more of the same as part of the Jubilee rapine tendencies that are ripping out Kenyans’ innards including those of Central Kenya residents, who are yet to “feel” the benefits of Uhuru being at the helm.
The people of Kirinyaga have always loved Karua. They are only turned off by her choice of party, as clearly demonstrated when they booed her shouting, “Jubilee! Jubilee!” during an UhuRuto tour of Kirinyaga county.
Karua’s move is not being seen as a tribal embrace of the system, rather a pragmatist political survival strategy. Many of us hope being a reformer, she will become the Psalmist “Lily among thorns” who will infiltrate the Jubilee looters.
And Ruto seems committed to ensuring that Karua as a Waiguru-Kenneth counterweight takes root, and gets established as a viable centre of power in Central Kenya ahead of 2022. Very important.