The English word ‘Juggernaut’ comes from the Hindu word ‘Jagannatha’ meaning ‘protector of the world’ in reference to the Hindu deity Lord Krishna considered an avatar of Vishnu.
It was said the worshipers of Krishna threw themselves under the wheels of the Jagannatha’s wagon in a fit of religious ecstasy and would sacrifice themselves to show their devotion to the deity. The word Juggernaut is then used metaphorically to signify a huge unwieldy crushing force, which, almost inevitably, will crash a few people along the way. Deputy President William Ruto is sitting on top of such a juggernaut. In the Ruto juggernaut, devotees have been thrown under the wheels, sometimes by Ruto’s enemies, sometimes by Ruto himself once they have outlived their usefulness.
This has served to expose an elaborate dark network of patronage that is at the centre of the 2022 strategy.
POLITICS OF PATRONAGE
Apart from his inner sanctum, there is a league of obscure, almost villainous gentlemen (and women) who keep the cogs of the massive Ruto juggernaut moving. They form the close-knit inner part of the web that is quietly extended into key sectors of government, in ministries and parastatals as well as various public institutions where there are other individuals like them, placed strategically, with the brief to oil the wheels to keep the Ruto juggernaut in motion. Emblazoned on their foreheads is the number 2022 and they move with the exactitude of an automaton, to achieve their programmed goal — by any means necessary. And until recently, you could not stand in their way. Except calling for a fair trial, it appears Ruto has gone silent as his men are being thrown to the doghouse. Many are wondering why.
RUTOPOLITIK
The Ruto Deputy Presidency is an intriguing study of the politics of patronage. He works best with a network he uses to leverage his hold on power, to keep his enemies in check and most importantly, placed strategically to catapult him to the next level – the presidency. He has invested lots of resources the most of which is money, in building this network. The web is not just within government operatives beholden to him but is extended to the private sector, media personalities, contractors, tenderpreneurs, clergymen, opinion leaders, wheeler-dealers, and yes – hustlers, who, in one way or another, leverage Ruto’s position in government.
They also serve to keep his enemies in check and are united with him in anticipating his ascension to State House. Ruto works with these people on three levels – his inner sanctum whose High Priest is Farouk Kibet, the odious former councillor turned Ruto’s PA and his Fixer-in-Chief. Farouk is hated as much as he is loved by those who support Ruto and blame him for ring-fencing the DP and making access to him extra-ordinarily difficult.
At the second level are Cabinet secretaries (aligned to him), MPs, senators, senior technocrats and heads of various parastatals band public organisations. Then the third are ‘professionals’ largely drawn from the private sector. These are people who live in Nairobi and work as lawyers, accountants, doctors etc. They will congregate and will whip up support towards him (financial or otherwise) at the moment of a crisis.
They will congregate at a moment’s notice, (the favourite being a certain establishment in Caledonia or even at Weston). They will place the ‘mountain’ facing Ruto on the table and begin to dismantle it through an elaborate process of brainstorming and action planning. The ‘mountain’ could be anything from whipping up voter registration numbers or even networking and funding for campaigns, countering negative press and consolidating present support. Ruto does not however present himself to this third tier portion of the web but will send those on the second line of the web to them.
It is, however, the first and second line of the web that Ruto is most interested in. These are resource finders, individuals who hold strategic positions and they have a clear brief – mobilise as much into the Ruto campaign machine for 2022. But in the last few days, a good number of people these people, most of whom were appointed through the direct (or in some cases indirect) influence of Ruto, have been falling like dominos. It appears someone who does not like Ruto very much, has known where to strike. This group is increasingly becoming Ruto’s Achilles heel as to target them is to him. Using the ongoing fight against corruption, these tier-one and tier-two individuals have found themselves on the wrong side of the law bringing into sharp focus the place of privilege and patronage in Kenya today.
PATRONAGE AND CORRUPTION
The political power to grant privilege or to appoint persons to influential positions was identified as one of the structural barriers to the fight against corruption and impunity and also one of the greatest drivers of inequality particularly in public appointments. Better known as ‘patronage’, this phenomenon was specifically outlawed by various provisions of the 2010 Constitution. Today, a politician in high office is unable to make appointments or grant privileges to loyal supporters without subjecting the same to public vetting and approval by Parliament. Checks and balances placed on public appointments with such provisions as public participation and vetting by Parliament and other related bodies, have curtailed the politics of patronage. But it has not gone far enough. It is still possible to reward whomever you want.
In the old days, the president hired whoever he willed, from the barely literate to the totally illiterate, from full professors to school dropouts. People would have meteoric rises and falls. Their firing often came in the 1pm news bulletin and most presidential appointees had a small transistor radio in their offices to listen to the 1pm news. If they did not hear their name, then they were safe, at least for the day. Those appointed to public office had one brief – to create an ample cash reserve and then sit behind their telephone and await the dreaded call from President Moi. And when the call came, it was almost always about how much their organisation would contribute to his endless fundraisers or would go to fund whatever the president fancied. The whole thing would be badly abused and in the end a good portion of these public funds were spirited away and hidden in foreign lands. The recent offer to return Kenyan funds held in Jersey Island is only proof that these networks of patronage had fuelled corruption for the longest time. Already there are loud questions on how or where DP Ruto gets his money for his generous fundraisers.
NETWORKS OF PATRONAGE
Moi did his business through individuals he entrusted with his wealth. Nicholas Biwott was his front for their joint energy business and even made him Energy minister for a long time. The two had struck friendship in the late sixties and by the early seventies, they were exporting charcoal (illegally) to the Middle East and on this background their relationship morphed into importation of oil white products for local distribution.
Soon their interest in the energy sector would become is one of the largest enterprises in Kenya with operations in several countries in the region. Then came Joshua Kulei, who also invested heavily in various sectors from banking to manufacturing, telecommunications, real estate and others — locally and abroad. This was on the inner level. On the outer level, there were various parastatal heads and leaders of various public bodies whose brief was to attend and fund whatever the President had in mind. From harambees to fund schools, hospitals etc, these funds were all designed to prop the Moi presidency. Woe unto you if you ran a parastatal and could not send a million or two to the President at short notice. A friend of mine who ran a large parastatal in the communication sector, narrated to me how he once received a call from State House Nairobi with the express instruction to send money to the President. When he declined, he was marked down in the web and it was not long before he stopped working for that organisation.
FUELING CORRUPTION
If you followed the Goldenberg trial, you had the impression that there was an elaborate spider’s web that touched into nearly all the sections of the public and private sector. The Central Bank, various banks, parastatals and many more were affected, wrecking the national economy and careers of many. Sometimes I see Elijah Bii on the streets of Nairobi. He was once the high-flying general manager of Kenya Commercial Bank (which then as now, was the largest bank by assets). Bii lost everything when he was dragged to court together with his chairman Alexander Kaminchia, Finance PS Wilfred Koinange, CBK governor Eric Kotut and his Deputy Eliphaz Riungu. They were just tiny joints in the shadowy network that played a part in the Goldenberg scandal in which the taxpayer lost billions. The courts failed to disclose the real beneficiaries of the scandal, but your guess is as good as mine.
As stated, Ruto also has his web. There are many who are out there who are doing his bid, and like Moi, they had to be Kalenjin to protect his interest at a personal level. Some have now been thrown under the juggernaut – and I am told more heads will roll. I must, however, ask them to humbly carry their own cross because, there are many Kalenjins who have not seen a single cent from their position and they don’t want the good name of my community to be dragged in the mud. Many Kalenjins are annoyed that these individuals once caught – begin to drag the community behind them, yet if you are in trouble, they will consistently ignore your calls. The mess in the NCPB affected thousands of Kalenjin farmers who voted for UhuRuto and cannot understand why they have to remain silent when they are unable to send their children to school. They don’t see the current benefit or the future one for that matter, of Ruto’s position and can rightly be forgiven for not caring when things are not going Ruto’s way. This inner sanctum, while it is important in mobilising resources, is distancing him from the people and it might be too late when in 2022, he realises that there was nobody behind him. Dismantle them.