• Assassination threats in a country where people, big and small, have disappeared without a trace is a sensitive issue.
• It is even more serious when such allegations come from the person who walks around with security the size of an army barrack.
Image: GEORGE OWITI
Narcissists have been described as people who attach excessive self-importance to themselves.
Their desires inadvertently become so manically and psychopathically obsessive that they fail to acknowledge reality. Instead, they thrive on and promote “alternative facts” with such finesse that they start believing their own lies. They start thinking of themselves as little gods and directly or indirectly egg on those who foolishly worship them.
Such people are so insecure that they want to control everything and everybody and when they are not in control they see a ghost in every bush they pass. For beginners, you will notice that these characteristics describe one politician in Kenya who thinks he is so important that his boss should bow before him.
I was shocked to hear the bizarre allegations of some Cabinet secretaries plotting to “assassinate” one William Samoei Ruto from Sugoi, Uasin Gishu county.
Obviously, assassination threats in a country where people, big and small, have disappeared without a trace is a sensitive issue. Most of us do not want blood on our hands. It is even more serious when such allegations come from the person who walks around with security the size of an army barrack, “prays” in churches where half the congregation is most likely plain cloth police officers and most importantly has lately acquired the title of ‘Jesus of Sugoi’, whose praise songs include “hakuna wa kufananishwa naye.”
If, as the Tangatanga minions want Kenyans to believe, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the DCI to summon the four accused CSs, he will have issued the order for two reasons. One, to ensure the plot, if any, stops and no blood is spilled. Two, to expose Ruto for his conspiracies theories and let the investigative agencies that Ruto has been bastardising do their work.
We cannot commit a lot of time to the allegations because they are not worth the paper they are written on. I strongly believe that these allegations were aimed at changing the narrative and focus from President Kenyatta’s powerfully delivered speech during the recent Akorino convention.
Whereas the media was complacent in characterising the President’s speech deliberately as an outburst, those who understand political communication acknowledge that was a master stroke. The message was spot on and within days evidence that it resonated with the people for whom it was intended was all over Ruto understood the message well and as if he must undo everything Uhuru does, he like all narcissists who think they have a magic wand for every situation quickly came up with this ridiculous “assassination” abracadabra mix it up to distract the people of Mount Kenya from the President’s message. It won’t fly.
It is one thing to want so badly to become President. While Kenyans acknowledge Ruto’s insatiable desire for State House and the fact that he has made his personal political ambitions a national emergency, his efforts to obliterate and wipe Mount Kenya leaders off the map shows dangerous signs of a petty dictator with a psychopathic manic obsession with the region.
'PETTY DICTATOR'
While Kenyans acknowledge Ruto’s insatiable desire for State House and the fact that he has made his personal political ambitions a national emergency, his efforts to obliterate and wipe Mount Kenya leaders off the map shows dangerous signs of a petty dictator with a psychopathic manic obsession with the region.
His appetite to antagonize the President in his backyard, outright disregard of government institutions and attempts to isolate Uhuru's men in his own turf smacks of a naïve and erratic strategist who is buoyed by the belief that he made Uhuru Kenyatta and can unmake him if he so wishes.
All dreams are valid but if I was admitted into presidential politics in 2013, I would not be taking Oscar Sudi, Ndindi Nyoro, Kimani Ngunjiri or Caleb Kositany’s advise on how to politically cripple a sitting President who sat in on presidential meetings by run by his father since he was five years old. Again, there are political suicide bombers who foolishly bring knives to gunfights.
Back to the “assassination.”
The allegations sound so hollow I feel weird writing about them. If the intention was to attract sympathy, then the strategy is dead on arrival.
Ruto’s supporters must love hearing their own voices. They make it sound as if blocking him from becoming President is a crime under the Kenyan law. Who told him he will be President? What makes them believe that anyone who does not support Ruto must be punished by removal from whatever office they hold?
As Trade CS Peter Munya aptly said on TV, Parliament is full of “babies” who rode to power on the strength of the Jubilee wave in its strongholds. Never mind that Ruto mismanaged the Jubilee nomination, especially in Mt Kenya and brought in greenhorns with no idea of what he means for the Kikuyu community.
Ruto, however, was so busy to notice that the President figured out what he did in Mt Kenya and brought back to government strong leaders from the region through appointments.
How mediocre would one have to be not to notice that in Eldoret, you talk development but in Mt Kenya, you talk 2022? Ironically, while praising a certain Dr Kurgat for the revamping of Rivatex, you pointed how persistent he was in pushing the CSs from the area and holding meetings with you and them to discuss the revival of the facility.
It is, therefore okay for Rift Valley leaders, elected or appointed, to meet at Weston Hotel to discuss “development” but wrong for Mt Kenya CSs to meet regional leaders to discuss development in your absence? Give Kenyans a break.
Does it surprise anyone that you have never supported the handshake? Is it because the President did not seek your permission to engage Raila Odinga? Were they also planning your assassination?
Finally, if William Ruto is serious about becoming President, he needs to step back, shake off his divider in chief tag, drop the political mercenaries who surround him and say nice suit when he is practically naked and drop entitlement. Your personal political ambitions are not our priority.
He tried the dynasty-hustler dirty game it didn’t work. He tried to portray others as devil worshippers and himself as the candidate of the church. The fact is the more he does it, the more he comes out as a false messiah.
He tried to fight the war on corruption but Uhuru-Raila unleashed a crippling 3D game he continued playing checkers with the currency changes.
He tried to demonize Raphael Tuju but inadvertently reminded Kenyans of his alleged role in the Kiambaa church tragedy in Eldoret.
Above all, there is no crime in any Kenyan of goodwill doing everything in their power to kill Ruto's political ambition. And as he is fond of saying, “Kenya ina upungufu wa watu wajinga.”
Timothy Kaberia is a US based political commentator