Ruto tour a bona fide diplomatic stinker

I’ve always thought Deputy President William Ruto would do himself in before the fat lady sang on August 9 this year. I didn’t know it would come so soon. The past two weeks have been a lesson – offered to Kenya free of charge by Mr Ruto – about how to shoot oneself in both feet at once.

I know Mr Ruto doesn’t have much international experience, except his time at the International Criminal Court nearly a decade ago. But the man from Sugoi has money, and should be able to afford first class political advice on what – and what not – to do when he leaves Kenya’s airspace. His junket to the US and UK has been a bona fide diplomatic stinker.

Mr Ruto’s international inexperience was on display from day one. In fact, the planning for the trip was shambolic. He took with him a fat entourage of some 40-odd inchoate mix of political flaks. That’s a scandal in itself. Kenya is a poor country where 20 per cent of the people live on less than $2 a day, and one-third of Kenyans, or 18 million out of 55 million, live below the poverty line. The sticker price for the trip was $1 million or Sh107 million. All at taxpayer expense. This is the caricature of an African potentate in the West. The image – of thieving African government elites on shopping sprees in New York while compatriots starve at home.

Corruption and criminal scandals

It’s utterly bamboozling and a misnomer for Mr Ruto to go on an “official” international trip since he doesn’t – and can’t – speak for the government of Kenya. Kenyan missions and embassies abroad would’ve treated him like a leper. Even if he met some Kenyan diplomats, the encounters would’ve been in futility. That’s because he’s a stranger in his own government. He would thus have been ill-prepared about conditions and politics in the US and the UK. And none of the coterie he took with him from Kenya would’ve been of much help because they don’t live there. It was simply foolhardy for Mr Ruto to wing it on his first major international trip. It was doubtlessly a fool’s errand.

Several factors conspired against Mr Ruto. The first is the weather. The harsh winter period isn’t the ideal time for people from the tropics to visit America – and traverse that vast land. The second was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It’s true life doesn’t stop, or government work cease, because of war. But it distracts everyone. Paying attention to Africa in America is always a tall order, even without a hot shooting war. Third, both Americans and the British are well aware that Mr Ruto is a pariah in his own government. They would’ve been wary to trust, or get close to, him for fear of offending Nairobi. Thus Mr Ruto and his multitude forced themselves on their “hosts”. 

Significantly, Mr Ruto is dogged by a large basket of corruption and criminal scandals. Most of them are well publicised internationally. His ICC woes rank at the top, as does his reputed unexplained vast wealth. I am sure that those were things officials and folks in the private sector thought about in America every time they shook his hand, or saw his visage. He was an eager guest but they were reluctant hosts. 

However, Mr Ruto and his crew tried to spin the trip as a resounding success. For example, they loudly advertised a non-existent high-level meeting at the White House. Whether they were rebuffed, or they made it up, isn’t clear. Elsewhere, they largely met subordinate staff.

Took his wailing act abroad

Mr Ruto was welcome in several right-wing universities by religious conservatives. In places he should’ve made a good impression, Mr Ruto turned into a crybaby. He spent an inordinate amount of time attacking ODM’s Raila Odinga and his boss, Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta. I am sure his audiences were left mouths agape. How does a sitting deputy president ridicule and lambast his government and his boss to foreign audiences while on a diplomatic trip? That’s a political death wish. 

He accused his boss of “budgeting corruption” for the pilferage of taxpayer money. Then he accused Mr Kenyatta of a sinister plan to rig and steal the August 9 elections for Mr Odinga. He invited Americans to intervene and stop Mr Kenyatta. 

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i famously called Mr Ruto a sympathy addict. Having failed to elicit much sympathy at home, Mr Ruto took his wailing act abroad. It was a strange sight to behold. At one point, I thought Mr Ruto was preparing grounds to seek political asylum in the US against his own government.

Like Donald Trump, he’s laying the groundwork to reject the results of the elections if he loses. It looks to me as if he’s sensed defeat. But what I found rich is Mr Ruto’s accusations of others of corruption since several opinion polls in Kenya have ranked him the most corrupt person in the country. Go figure. 

Prof Makau Mutua is the spokesperson of the Raila Odinga 2022 presidential campaign team. He is a SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School and chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.