Ruto was accused of being involved in the chaos that rocked the North Rift whose resultant force was the transposition of many Kikuyus.
One could not fathom a way that he would ever be able to compensate for that deleterious publicity. The predicaments for the Kikuyu in Rift valley were real, and with politics taking centre stage, then President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga would throw Ruto and five others under the International Criminal Court bus when it arrived.
The precarious nature of the Kofi Annan-led talks had the country split right down the middle as one side considered the other a waste of space. Mungiki is said to have been hired to neutralise the shameful attacks on the Kikuyu in the Rift Valley because, apparently, the police were practically overwhelmed. One has to wonder what might have been if there was not an intervention by the international community as there was plenty of grandstanding.
Ruto became anathema to Kikuyus just like that of his party leader then, Raila Odinga. The issues were real, and not feigned. No one would have imagined that a few years later, he would be Uhuru’s deputy, in a new constitutional dispensation in the country, and seen as the ideal heir to Uhuru by the Mount Kenya communities.
The political union with Uhuru was a political masterstroke and which granted Ruto the opportunity to emerge as a managerial powerhouse in politics.
The Kofi Annan talks was a departure point for Ruto with Raila, arguably because Raila did not heed advice and only took decisions which benefited him at the expense of those who had propped his quest for presidency in 2007 where he earned the prime minister position.
Although Musalia Mudavadi was among members representing the ODM in the talks, he had not been as assertive as Ruto in the process, yet he was rewarded the deputy Prime Minister position alongside Uhuru. It is another moment that Ruto fell out of favour with a principal he propped and was brushed to the back of the line.
Anyway, before 2013, Ruto’s political future looked grim, murkier than ever. Raila’s advisers -or at least his own hunch- had it that, if he managed to paint Uhuru and Ruto as criminals and outlaws in the 2013 elections, he’d triumph over them, after all Kenyans were still bitter with the chaos of the 2007 polls.
However, the Kalenjin and Kikuyu rallying together baffled other Kenyan communities as it had been projected that no love would ever be lost between them ever again. Raila was in relentless pursuit of the presidency, and Uhuru and Ruto needed a win to defeat the ICC agenda after the court’s prosecutor Moreno Ocampo had sprung into action Propio Motu.
His doom in Uhuru’s second term is now well known as he was largely demonised as corrupt and untrustworthy. It was a herculean job for him to do, as Uhuru spoke passionately to his Kikuyu kinsmen being insistent that the path he had chosen for them was their guarantee for a secure future and that Ruto was an ominous danger.
Nevertheless, the Mount Kenya people reneged on heeding the word of their kingpin who had been selected for them years back by the late John Michuki, and rallied around Ruto’s United Democratic Movement. It was a most peculiar political pattern that astounded leaders from the community and which had most of them compelled to align with Ruto.
Political organisation and taking power is harder than running government. Predicting what the people want at a given political moment accurately is political intelligence.
Similarly, connecting with the people and giving messages that resonate is an art that many who appear to have become proficient at often fall short of. Emerging victorious in 2022 demonstrated, and therefore defeating elite and private interests to deliver his promises to the people is not unfeasible. Ruto can do it if he wills.
Ruto can be able to determine how cartels craft crude plans that lead to shortages or backwardation in certain products of mass consumption, because the idea is always to take advantage of the people. As he has said, some people should not rake in big money at the expense of commoners. He can identify them and nip them at the bud. Being in touch with the goings-on is a critical aspect of running the country. It is possible for Ruto and his team to decipher where challenges emerge from and plug them conclusively.
As a great manager, the president is capable of effective management of his various teams. Currently, he appears to be establishing a crucial work ethic within his cabinet with timeliness taking preeminence. There will be nothing heroic about looking the other way, the president must demand results from his personnel.
The fuel pricing matter and dynamics around that should actually set heads rolling. For the policy to change from zero subsidisation to the earlier position, wrong advice must have been given to him, we can only surmise. The economic advisors must give practical solutions and not indulge in some sublimation of reality when put to task for their failed ideas.
Ruto’s has consistently maintained that the country is on the right track. He has not shied in addressing any glaring problems and reinstating fuel subsidy demonstrates humility and a willingness to deliver for Kenyans and to start to reduce the cost of living.
While the economic council still needs to confer sufficiently to find a reliable way forward, there is no doubt that the president is keen to make a difference. He is emerging as a fiduciary for the common man by demanding performance from his team and he must continue asking the hard questions.
The President is pretty fired up to take on the challenges, for example, he came in with his eyes on the rising national debt. This one will take some doing to keep reducing and his teams must provide solutions after all, they were hired to deliver, and not to launch evasive rebuttals when Kenyans come calling for results.
Having overcome the political challenges through his career at the near top, Ruto is poised to deliver the change that Kenyans so sorely need. Failing in some polices and adopting others are occupational hazards in running government and totally acceptable.
As we posited in an earlier commentary “The ball Kikuyus put in Ruto’s hands”, the president can become a true Kenyan hero if he does what appears titanic.
