A no-holds-barred public exchange pitting President Uhuru Kenyatta against his deputy William Ruto hit a crescendo on Labour Day when the two publicly went for each other’s jugular.
Uhuru went hammer and tongs against his deputy, accusing him of absconding from his constitutionally assigned duties and calling on him to earnestly resign.
In a quick rejoinder through his Twitter handle, Ruto accused Uhuru of edging him out of government and assigning his duties to other individuals, notably Raila Odinga and Fred Matiang’i, who had spectacularly failed him.
This was in reference to the seemingly unbridled rising cost of living.
To most Kenyans, it was astonishing that the two individuals to whom they had bequeathed a higher political and legal responsibility to manage the affairs of this nation would trade barbs and blames instead of fixing the mess that is the Kenyan economy.
But what was the political point of departure between the erstwhile dynamic duo, whose first term signature marks were matching ties and folded shirts?
For starters, the union between Uhuru and Ruto was not ideological but of convenience: Flashing the ICC card to galvanise ethnic voices and numbers against their indictment for atrocities against humanity and win the 2013 general election, respectively.
Kikuyu and Kalenjin’s unity quest was just political expedience: A decoy for glossing over deep historical inter-communal grievances. Therefore, the union was bound to fail once it outlived its usefulness.
On rising to power in 2013, the two used their influence to bungle the ICC cases and got off the hook, as alleged by the prosecutor. They then trained their eyes on leading the country without the ICC baggage, hoping to use their track record as the basis for reelection in 2017.
Political analysts are in concurrence that it is in their first term that Uhuru ceded too much ground to Ruto, who in turn entrenched himself deeply in government and built a formidable network that has proven useful in his quest for the presidency.
Quietly upsetting his boss, Ruto unleashed a charm offensive in Mt Kenya, ostensibly to commission development projects yet subtly campaigned and became in touch with their grievances while Uhuru grew aloof.
While skirting responsibility then, sleaze was at its all-time high but the presidency defended itself vehemently and pointed fingers at institutions charged with fighting corruption.
But it was not until after the repeat of Jubilee nominations in 2017 that cracks began emerging in the presidency.
By personally superintending the nominations, the Deputy President had the carte blanche to instal to power a group of politicians who would remain loyal to him at a critical juncture of his presidential ambitions to the detriment of perceived Uhuru loyalists. Since then, the presidency began pulling apart.
For a retinue of politicians around Ruto, the 2018 handshake between Raila and Uhuru was the visible genesis of the tension that has gripped the presidency.
Describing themselves as children of peasants, the handshake was a dynastic collaboration in their eyes despite the partakers insisting that their newfound unity was about the nation’s harmony, not succession politics.
During one of their tours in Nairobi, the President humorously referred to Ruto’s countrywide tours as ‘kutangatanga’, which gained fame within the Ruto faction despite some terming it derogatory.
This was amid widespread reports of Raila’s growing influence within government, lending credence to Ruto’s insistence that the handshake had sinister motives.
The split in the presidency then took another turn when the vicious campaign of Friday arrests of corruption suspects began, perceived by some as a witch-hunt against Ruto’s allies in the political and bureaucratic wings of government.
They accused the president of weaponising the war on graft to cut his deputy to size while propping Raila as his successor.
Then came Executive Order No. 1 of 2019, which elevated Matiang’i to a chief cabinet secretary, supervising the coordination and implementation of national government projects and programmes, consequently stripping the Deputy President of his core duties.
Thereafter, in an interview with BBC, Ruto denied that he had been stripped of his duties, insisting that they were well stipulated by the Constitution. This fomented calls for his resignation, since earning public money without working is borderline fleecing of Kenyans.
And with the public endorsement of Raila as his preferred successor, Uhuru drove the last nail in his political union with Ruto.
This infighting has inflicted untold pain on Kenyans because members of the Executive have channelled their attention to scoring political points instead of consolidating ideas to revive the economy, reduce the cost of living, and cushion Kenyans from the ravages of Covid-19.
Conversely, it has brought to the fore the importance of institutionalising the Office of the Deputy President, whose occupant can only be impeached by Parliament and not at the whims of the President upon disagreement.
Journalist and public relations practitioner. [email protected]
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