Political parties in Kenya are merely special purpose vehicles because they do not stand on any ideas, ideology or philosophy.
They are personality-driven instead of being philosophically driven like in the West.
The US and the UK have parties leaning to the left or right such as the Republican and Democratic parties, and the Conservative and Labour parties respectively. Anyone who joins these parties has similar views on everything.
The same cannot be said of Kenya. What we have are powerful regional kings and tribal chiefs forming political parties that are anchored on individuals. It is, therefore, not a surprise that Deputy President William Ruto is aligned to many upcoming political parties.
As the DP of Kenya and deputy party leader of Jubilee, he cannot be seen to be associating with any political party. The strategy may be to create many political parties through his allies to confuse Kenyans and at the end of the day he will pick one and ask those who support his cause to join it.
This means he is keeping both friend and foe guessing because they do not know where he stands. And that is good strategy—keep everybody confused.
He wants to create competition for his candidature so that political parties that have been formed will be looking for him, wooing him. That will create a big demand for him.
The political parties appeal to ethnic nationalism, which will serve him quite well. The parties will be able to tell Kenyans 'we have a stake in this administration.'
The DP will now not be negotiating with individuals but with political parties from the Coast, Central, Nyanza and Kisii. This will give those communities a false sense of ownership—that they are shareholders in his administration.
However, if one organisation, say UDA, becomes popular and feels shortchanged at the negotiating table, it can easily do a runner and leave him (Ruto) high and dry.
The political risk analyst spoke to the Star
