• The Deputy President told supporters not to embarrass him by electing his detractors
Image: MATHEWS NDANYI
It’s a biblical principle that a prophet is without honour in his own home. When William Ruto declared his intention to run for the presidency, he came under sustained attacks from his backyard by those he would ordinarily have considered to be part of his support base.
He encountered endless salvos from these leaders questioning his suitability for office. And when they talked, the nation listened because nobody knows you better than those with whom you share a common heritage.
While careful not to make his presidential undertaking look like a tribal affair, Ruto was keen not to position himself as the Kalenjin kingpin. But he would definitely need to leverage the support from his backyard to reach out to other areas.
Facing uncharacteristic opposition in his home turf from his friends-turned-foes was undermining his efforts in other parts of the country. These included vocal MPs Alfred Keter (Nandi Hills), Joshua Kuttuny (Cherangany), Silas Tiren (Moiben) and Swarup Mishra (Kesses), William Kamket (Tiaty) and Senator Margaret Kamar. Those not in Parliament included former MPs Dr Sally Kosgey, Stephen Tarus, Franklin Bett and various influential opinion leaders and aspirants, including Zedekiah Bundotich, popularly known as Buzeki.
The outspoken leaders were constantly ridiculing him, shoring broadsides and rubbishing his presidential aspirations. The media, which was patently against him, tended to hype whatever these people said. But it was Mzee Patrice Chepkwony of the ‘Aligulaa’ fame that surprised everyone. The old man quickly became a celebrity in Azimio circles, addressing excited rallies hammering the Ruto’s alleged thievery.
The unrelenting onslaught against his presidential bid, led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Azimio top brass, was gaining momentum and beginning to hurt. They effectively used the rebelling Kalenjin MPs against him. Moreover, the new UDA party rather unexpectedly lost its vice chairperson Kipruto Kirwa in May, just under two months to the General Election. Ruto needed to counter them with an effective strategy to retain his base, and knew precisely where he would get them.
A NEW PARTY
Ruto had been denied the use of the Jubilee party to launch his presidential bid. He had expended considerable energies and resources putting together the party, including dissolving his own URP party to merge with a dozen others to form Jubilee. When it became apparent that he would not be getting the Jubilee ticket, he formed a new party, UDA, and launched it as his new vehicle to State House.
The party was quickly adopted by the electorate in the Rift and also in Central and across the country. Suddenly, the dissenting Rift MPs realised the carpet had been pulled from under their feet. They now found themselves at the mercy of Ruto and would need to get into his good graces if they were to have even a remote chance of defending their seats.
But for allowing themselves to be used by his detractors, Ruto would not let them come near what was shaping up to be the most desirable party ticket for the restless Rift valley. Quickly, the rebellious voices died down, one after another, each seeing the reality of being swept away by the coming flood. Erstwhile critics such as Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ng’eno were quick to abandon their ship and joined UDA, supporting Ruto’s presidential bid.
But then Ruto had one headache: Alfred Keter of Nandi Hills, who was extremely popular on the ground. In the same manner Ruto had risen to become the favourite son of the Kalenjin people, Alfred Keter displayed similar qualities to Ruto. He was bold, courageous and daring, qualities that had endeared Ruto to the Nandi people. Removing him would not be easy, and he would not want to move to the presidency with more dissenting voices on his side.
While Keter had already seen that the UDA was the party of choice and he would have to find the ticket, he quickly went quiet on attacking the DP but never quite came out in support of him either. He tried to sanitise himself at a rally in Kapsabet town but the electorate shouted him down in front of the DP.
During the party primaries, the UDA party had quietly settled for the popular Wesley Kogo, who unfortunately died only days leading up to the party primaries. This cleared the way for Alfred Keter, who easily trounced the latecomer, Bernard Kitur, who had been sent to fit into the shoes of the deceased Kogo.
But then the UDA party declined to clear Keter, citing widespread irregularities and instead gave the certificate to Bernard Kitur. Keter rushed to the Political Parties Tribunal, which ruled in favour of UDA, putting paid his effort to secure the party ticket. But then with the energy of a wounded lion, Keter moved to the people, convincing them that their victory had been unfairly snatched from them by Ruto. He announced that he would run as an Independent.
SIX-PIECE SUIT
Only days to the General Election, Ruto camped in the Rift and, starting in Nandi Hills, campaigned vigorously for the UDA party candidate Kitur. He told the Nandi people not to embarrass him at home by electing Keter, who was defending his seat as an independent. Ruto told the people that he had been accepted by the Kikuyu people and asked why his fellow Nandi would embarrass him by electing his detractors.
He tagged along UDA-affiliated leaders from Central Kenya to prove his point. Ruto moved to the adjoining constituency Kesses, where Mishra was also campaigning on an Independent ticket. Unlike Keter, he had not bothered to seek the UDA ticket, fearing he would suffer the same fate. He, too, was poised to retain the seat, having performed better than expected as an MP.
Ruto again used the same line as he had earlier on with Keter as he did in Moiben against Tiren. He even went all the way to Cherangany, effectively ending the political ambitions of all the dissenters on his home turf. He also urged the electorate not to touch poll losers running as Independents. The people heard him and Keter lost, albeit by a narrower than expected margin.
Meanwhile in Bomet, former Governor Isaac Rutto, who had since seen the futility of fighting Ruto, had openly endorsed his presidential bid and asked the voters to give him the governorship under his Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) party. Ruto simply urged the voters to go for the ‘six-piece-suit’ and Isaac Rutto failed to clinch the seat, losing to the less charismatic Hillary Barchok in UDA.