MUGWANG'A: Ruto’s trip abroad and its bag of convenient untruths

Deputy President  William Ruto left the country on February 27 for a 12-day political tour of the US, the UK and Qatar.

Notably, the Deputy President spoke at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and at the Washington Entrepreneurship Hub of the University of Arizona in the US and the Chatham House in the UK.

As the second senior most political leader in Kenya, DP Ruto has the moral obligation to carry the name and image of our great republic in highest regard and esteem. He is also expected to display the character of admirable honesty and consistency. As he returns to the country from this trip, I must contend that, overly, it is a shame that Ruto failed miserably at both.

Speaking at Carnergie Endowment for International Peace, the DP claimed that over Sh100 billion is budgeted annually for opaque institutions that can't be oversighted. He further said the amount has grown five fold in the last 10 years, the period he has been the country’s second in command. Take a moment and internalise that.

The second most powerful man in Kenya, who had about half of the Cabinet slots to fill and parliamentary oversight committees to choose leaders feels that the best place to prosecute such a serious matter is in a foreign land, from where Kenya enjoys massive partnership and support.

By citing the handshake between President Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga as the main factor that has enabled corruption to run free in Kenya, DP Ruto seems to hope that Kenyans, and his foreign audience, are foolish enough to buy the hypocrisy.

The hustlers’ camp that the DP heads is on public record defending  people implicated in graft, fiercely opposing their prosecution. They created a political emotional wave of sympathy, labelling the genuine war on graft as “political witch-hunt”.

Evidently, it is not political witch-hunt at all because lately, we have witnessed several high-profile convictions, which was rare in the past.

The electioneering period has always been a very emotive period in Kenya. Previously, DP Ruto has been very vocal in dismissing any claims of election interference and vote rigging. His assurance was that the electoral agency is independent and capable of fending off any kind of interference.

At the Carnergie Institute, however, the DP voiced open concerns about attempts to influence the outcome of the elections in favour of his competitors. This has been the chorus adopted by his political choir.

Note, Ruto confidently banked on the political backing of the incumbent, President Uhuru Kenyatta. However, as everybody knows, ideological and value differences saw the two leaders drift apart, and the President has now thrown his weight behind Raila.

The presidency has not changed because Ruto fell out with the President, and the person of Uhuru Kenyatta has not changed. The same genuine, fair and constitutional support that the President was to accord Ruto is the same that he accords Raila. 

In the UK, DP Ruto stepped up his mastery of double speak and confident dishonesty. He claimed he didn't influence appointments to the Cabinet or state institutions.

That is funny in an insulting way. Every Kenyan knows that the pre-election pacts between President Kenyatta and DP Ruto included a power-sharing agreement.

Ruto was to get almost half of the Cabinet slots and leadership positions in Parliament — the National Assembly and the Senate — including membership and leadership of committees.

All along, the opposition played their role very well, by calling out corruption scandals in various government ministries and institutions. Shameful to say, most of the people implicated were the people the Deputy President had fronted for appointment. That explains the speed with which he and his lieutenants have been jumping to defend the accused and playing the toxic, misleading political victim card.

When the handshake happened, and as Uhuru revealed, Ruto’s allies attempted to frustrate him by threatening to defeat all government motions in both Houses, obviously, without giving thought to the benefit of the same motions to the mwananchi.

All those who rebelled against the party positions were relieved of their leadership roles to give way to those who were committed to delivering Jubilee’s campaign pledges and vision.

All these people trooped to Ruto’s UDA camp and claimed they were being targeted for being his foot soldiers. There you have it, his own people defeat his lies.

The Deputy President should spare Kenyans the insult of simple, unintelligent lies that are an insult to the intelligence of the same voters whose support he is seeking.

He cannot purport to claim credit for the successes of the government he has fought internally for the last couple of years and try to dodge the responsibility of the shortfalls of the same. That is a selfish strategy of convenience to one’s personal ambition.

Kenyans need and want a realist, not a crafting master of convenient narratives.

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