- In a tell-it-all interview with Citizen TV, the DP revealed the extent of his deteriorating relationship with his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta.
- He for the first time revealed that he has been forced to endure a lot of humiliation in his own Jubilee government.
Image: FREDRICK OMONDI
Deputy President William Ruto has for the first time admitted that he has been forced to endure a lot of humiliation in a government he helped form in 2013.
In a tell-it-all interview with Citizen TV on Thursday night, the DP revealed the extent of his deteriorating relationship with his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta, in the Jubilee government.
DP Ruto, who has been seen largely as an outsider in the ruling party and government, nearly became emotional as he detailed how he was shoved aside immediately Jubilee was reelected in 2017.
While he admitted he had nothing against the President's decision for a different government delivery model, Ruto said he was being subjected to immense humiliation and embarrassment.
“That is an unfortunate situation. Given an opportunity, I will not allow my depuuty to be humiliated the way former DPs have been humiliated and the way I have been humiliated. I will not allow," the Ruto declared.
His isolation in government has been an open secret but it was the first time he came out to openly admit that his broken bromance with Uhuru had plunged him into suffering.
Despite the torment, Ruto said he has never disrespected the President nor complained about the mistreatment because of “the respect I have for the Office of the President.”
“If the President decides to deliver government business in a different way and elevate other people, consult more with the former leader of opposition and work with other ministers to deliver government business, I have taken it with grace,” Ruto said.
When asked what went wrong between him and the President, the DP said upon their reelection, the President decided to do things differently with new advisers and players that changed the priorities.
“It is the prerogative of the President being the boss and you know the boss is always right to change the style of how he wants to deliver the programme that we have and government business”.
He went on: “The space that I occupied before was taken up by other people who are advising the President on how to move forward.”
Unfortunately, Ruto said, the original plan of the Jubilee's second term to create jobs, expanding business, and universal health coverage took a beating because of the change of style and priorities.
“When the President decides that he wants to change priorities of his administration or change the people he wants to work with, that is his prerogative and I respect that,” he added.
The DP made a rare revelation that at one point he was forced to defend his 'disrespectful' conduct in a high-level meeting with the President and the Director of National Intelligence Service, Phillip Kameru.
"I asked the President to produce information showing what I had done in private or in public to disrespect him or to elevated myself beyond what my duties are and the President was very candid with me. He told me there is no such information,” Ruto said.
He went on: “The Director of Intelligence was there and he also did not produce any information on the same”.
The DP, however, painted an image of a man who has surrendered to despair both in government and in the Jubilee Party, accusing some of the President's handlers of severely undermining him.
In the first term, the DP was at the centre of government delivery and performance. He was, however, gradually shoved aside as the President moved to assert his authority after the reelection.
Uhuru has defended his new style of leadership and management saying he was forced to make the changes because Ruto was focusing on 2022 succession politics instead of helping him deliver on his legacy agenda.
The President has instead challenged the DP to quit government and allow other people to serve Kenyans if he is dissatisfied with the Jubilee programmes.
Ruto also confessed that he was emotional that Jubilee Party mandarins had declared him persona non grata at Jubilee headquarters, a party he had heavily invested on to build.
In October last year, the Jubilee Party National Management Committee recommended Ruto's as the deputy party leader and barred him from using the party headquarters to advance his political ambitions.
Edited by EKibii