‘Can’t anybody make lemonade out of lemons like this man Ruto?’
This proverbial phrase was posted by Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika, moments after Deputy President William Ruto released pictures of himself with the new police officers deployed to his Karen residence.
The post by Kihika, DP’s key lieutenant, sums up how Ruto has perfected the art of turning adversity, allegedly propagated against him by the State, into an opportunity to endear himself to the people.
From claims of being locked out of the Handshake and BBI to alleged humiliation and frustration in government, Ruto has depicted himself as a victim of State excesses and appeared to turn around the challenges to his favour.
Political observers say the DP has mastered the art of manipulating political situations – evoking emotions and sympathies of the electorate – for his 2022 presidential ambitions.
“Ruto is a clever politician and tends to make lemonades from lemons thrown his way. He has this rare capacity to turn around wicked problems to his favour,” Dismas Mokua, a Nairobi-based political risk analyst, said.
Lawyer Elias Mutuma said the state and its machineries have successfully managed to keep Ruto "on the lips of every Kenyan". Through their actions, they have put the DP on the headlines.
“Of late, the DP has dominated the headlines for both good and bad reasons. People who didn’t know him are now interested in understanding him,” the lawyer said.
“He seems to be on the lips of everyone. I think the state, by its actions, may be doing him a favour unknowingly. It’s making him more popular and evoking sympathies even from unfamiliar quarters,” he added.
Javas Bigambo, a governance expert, said the perceived frustrations could be a blessing in disguise.
This, he said, depends on how well he handles atrocities.
"In 2017, Hassan Joho (Mombasa Governor) turned his afflictions into political harvests, and so can Ruto," he said.
Ruto has often cut the look of a frustrated man and portrayed himself as a one who has been edged out of his own government and a son of a peasant targeted by ‘dynasties’ and state machineries.
He has sought to endear himself to the ‘hustlers’ (ordinary citizens), describing himself as a chicken seller who struggled in life.
However, critics accuse him of seeking political sympathy by always playing victim to government actions.
Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta dared him to resign if he's dissatisfied with the government.
"It would be an honourable thing that if you are not happy with it (government), step aside and take your agenda to the people," Uhuru said.
However, Mokua said that Ruto’s populist politics will not necessarily translate into votes given the pleasure and pain principle in the Kenyan political space.
“His brand of politics will not necessarily attract new voters outside his traditional support base. Evidence suggest that he has not grown any new support outside traditional URP and TNA bases using his brand of politics".
Last week, GSU officers manning Ruto's official residence in Karen and homes in Uasin Gishu were withdrawn and replaced by Administration Police officers.
The move was seen as downgrading of the DP’s security detail.
It evoked emotions of his allies and supporters who took to the political podium and social media to attack the government for playing politics with his security.
Ruto downplayed the replacement of the officers, saying he was ready to be protected by even G4S.
“If the GSU have to serve Kenyans elsewhere, for instance, those troubled with cattle rustlers, then they [APs] can assist me at home. And if the APs are also needed elsewhere, they can even bring G4S to my home. I have no problem,” he said in Nakuru on Sunday.
The sentiments triggered a barrage of criticisms, with his critics accusing him and his allies in UDA of using the situation to seek sympathy by trying to show that they are victims.
“But the way politics is in Kenya, the UDA side is trying to make mincemeat out of it for political mileage. It’s all in the season now and you’re all going to see such things,” Kitutu Chache South MP Richard Onyonka said.
Early last month, the DP was blocked from travelling to Uganda by immigration officers at Wilson Airport over reports he had not sought and obtained permission from him boss.
He was forced to wait at the airport for more than five hours.
Days later, a Turkish man, Harun Aydin, who part of his entourage for the botched trip, was arrested anti-terror police officers, detained for days and later deported over alleged links to terrorism.
“What wrong have I done, why is it always about me?” Ruto said during an interview in Inooro TV, apparently speaking to the emotions of his supporters.
“I have been pushed aside. There are many things I don’t want to mention. What happened at Wilson Airport was an attempt to belittle and show me that I am not important and that there are more powerful people".
In April, Ruto claimed that he has been forced to endure frustrations, humiliation and embarrassment in a government he helped form in 2013.
“Given an opportunity, I will not allow my deputy to be humiliated the way former DPs have been humiliated and the way I have been humiliated. I will not allow,” he had said.
Ruto, the country’s second in command, had told a local TV station that his job of overseeing government projects was taken away from him by his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He claimed his allies have been the target of anti-graft agencies.
“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 the minister to deliver government business, I have taken it with grace,” he said.
During the interview, 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 elevate myself beyond what my duties are and the President was very candid with me. He told me there is no such information,” Ruto said.
