Why Ruto is in no-holds-barred war with Uhuru

Deputy President William Ruto is digging in for a major fight against the system which he claims has orchestrated a scheme to scuttle his 2022 presidential ambitions.

Ruto has taken his battle to President Uhuru Kenyatta's doorstep claiming his State House bid is unstoppable and that only death can halt his march.

The DP has viciously attacked the Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss George Kinoti whom he has accused of being mobilised to stop his march to State House.

On Saturday, Ruto said the murder of his guard - Sergeant Kipyegon Kenei - was plotted and executed by 'the system' in a bid to intimidate him to back off his presidential interests.

In an emotional tribute, Ruto alleged Kenei's mysterious death was part of a bigger political scheme to set him against his Kalenjin community to nosedive his popularity in the Rift Valley region.

Ruto, whose office has been put at the centre of Kenei's murder on February 18, appeared to have declared total political war against the government. He said he had been set up in the Sh39 billion fake military tender.

Kenei, who was the head of security at the DP's Harambee Annex office, was found by the DCI to be a key witness in the fraudulent tender and that his murder was part of a cover-up scheme.

But the DP's claim that his office was not involved in any military procurement because “there is only one commander-in-chief and that there is no deputy commander-in-chief."

That remark was aimed directly at President Kenyatta. Ruto appeared to suggest that the person who could have been aware of the deal was the commander-in-chief himself who is the President.

Politicians and analysts now say the DP's assertion while attending Kenei's burial in Chemasis village in Rongai, Nakuru county, exposed a bitter man in a no-holds-barred fight with his boss.

Political analyst Herman Manyora told the Star that it was clear that “there is no love lost between the President and his deputy and that when Uhuru says he has no business with Ruto in 2022, he actually means it.”

“When he (Ruto) is talking that there is no deputy commander-in-chief, he means to say that 'why are you coming to me when there are bigger people involved.' Ruto is just telling the DCI to go to the right person who is bigger than him and who is the President,” Manyora said.

The University of Nairobi lecturer said the DP is in an all-out political war against Uhuru and will no longer employ “shadow-boxing but rather face the President directly.”

Ruto claims that there is a system of perceived brokers and bureaucrats controlling state power although not elected that is determined to vanquish his presidential quest. That, analysts say, is a direct attack on the President.

“If there is a system that the DP doesn't control, then it is the system controlled by the President,” Manyora said.

On Sunday, Ruto heightened the battle with his own government when he claimed that his allies were being harassed and threatened with arrest and prosecution over their political allegiance.

“I want to ask those officers we have employed and power brokers who are pretending to be big people to stop intimidating governors, MPs and MCAs,” he said at a church service in Buuri constituency, Meru county.

The DP has alleged that there is an attempt to use the criminal justice system to achieve political ends. The remarks appear to be at cross-purposes with Uhuru's anti-graft war.

Ruto asserted he is the deputy president who was elected by the people and that “I have no apologies to make to anybody.”

The statement was seen as a thinly veiled attack on Uhuru who has remained tight-lipped even as Ruto fights claims of his office's involvement in the fake arms deal.

The DP's allies believe he is unfairly being targeted yet he was instrumental in the formation of the Jubilee government.

"If it were not for Ruto, Uhuru Kenyatta would not have been the President in Kenya. That I can state without fear of contradiction," Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria said on Sunday.

ODM's National Treasurer Timothy Bosire said the DP's reactions over Kenei's death exposed him as a man who lacks the capacity to hold the centre in times of crisis.

"He (Ruto) has panicked. He is causing fear. He has emotions and is threatening and challenging. He has not demonstrated he can handle a crisis. Leaders don't break down that way," Bosire, a former Kitutu Masaba MP said.

On Monday, Central Organisation of Trade Unions secretary general Francis Atwoli accused the DP of feigning ignorance in the fraudulent arms deal involving former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa and which was to be signed in his office.

“The Deputy president wants us to believe that for the one hour and twenty-two minutes Echesa and the two foreigners were in his office, nobody called him from his office to inform him,” a furious Atwoli said at a press conference in Kisumu.

He crushed his phone on the floor and claimed Ruto lacked the requisite integrity to vie for the presidency.

“That is only meant for fools. Shenzi sana (very idiotic),” Atwoli said.

Ruto had claimed that Echesa visited his office for only 23 minutes but Kinoti played CCTV footage that showed the former CS stayed in the office for nearly one-and-half hours on February 13, moments before he was arrested by detectives.

"Other than the 23 minutes in Harambee Annex, for months which government offices involved in the tender did the scammers visit? Did they access DOD? Who facilitated? Who did they meet? Get the truth. Forget the sponsored nonsense in the media,” Ruto tweeted on February 16.

Ruto's claim that the two Polish nationals, Echesa and the fake general Daniel Otieno Omondi could have visited DoD and that he is not the deputy commander-in-chief point to a bigger fight with his boss.

On Monday, Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony appealed to the government to enhance Ruto’s security following the murder of Sergeant Kenei.

“When your security person is killed, what else will follow? What was the real intention of eliminating someone who is just assigned to perform his duties?” Chepkwony said.

He said the current political situation is not safe for the DP “especially considering his firm stand on how the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) forums are being conducted.”

“I also have a security person, but if he is killed then I’m the real target," Chepkwony said.

Edited by Peter Obuya