It has been a long ride from rural Sugoi to State House. From only owning his first pair of shoes when he got to secondary school and hawking eggs and chicken by the roadside to make ends meet, William Samoei Ruto has certainly capped a meteoric rise to the ultimate seat of privilege, wealth and power.
Confirmation Monday by the Supreme Court of his election victory completes what might seem a natural progression, but it might also be significant that he becomes only the second deputy President in Kenya to rise to the top seat. The first was his mentor, President Daniel arap Moi, who ascended to the presidency without contest in 1978 following the death in office of President Jomo Kenyatta.
Dr Ruto succeeds President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom he deputised for two terms, ending with a fractured relationship that saw his boss do everything in his power to block him, including throwing his weight behind the fifth presidential bid of veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.
As he gets ready for formal assumption of office following the delay occasioned by Mr Odinga’s Supreme Court petition, the President-elect will be acutely conscious of the weight of expectations from numerous constituencies that bought into his “Hustler versus Dynasty” narrative, and propelled him to State House at his first attempt.
He campaigned on the promise to break the stranglehold on political and economic power by the Kenyatta, Moi and Odinga dynasties, yet many might have missed the simple fact that these were the very same families on whose coattails he latched onto to ease his way up the totem pole.
Dr Ruto promised a new social order that will place the ordinary citizen at the centre of his economic and social revolution, but everything in his political background points to a reactionary type hungry to be admitted to the high table, rather than one out to topple the status quo.
This is what one reads from his brief forays into student politics at the University of Nairobi, in the early 1990s, his engagement with President Moi’s Youth for Kanu ’92 created to counter the clamour for democracy, and his opposition to the progressive 2010 constitution, which eliminated the last vestiges of one-party dictatorship.
Once he takes office, Dr Ruto might well have a challenge demonstrating that he was, indeed, for real change, rather than just change of those at the eating trough. He was born to very average parents in Sugoi, Uasin Gishu County, in 1966. It was a typical village upbringing for the barefoot, runny-nosed boy who, in between herding scrawny livestock, found time to enrol at Kamagut Primary School. He then joined Wareng Secondary School for his ‘O’ Levels followed by Kapsabet High School for his ‘A’ Levels.
The very fact that he made it to ‘A’ Levels is a good indicator that he came from a progressive family that was not as dirt-poor and deprived as the narrative often pushed. And from there, it was on to the University of Nairobi where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany and Zoology in 1990.
Unlike many who cut their political teeth at the ‘mother’ university, Ruto at campus was more active in the Christian Union and choir than in student politics.
After university Ruto worked briefly as rural schoolteacher, then earned a scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree at the University of Nairobi. He had hardly taken up his studies when the allure of politics beckoned.
The multi-party campaign fronted by Raila Odinga and others was pushing President Moi to the wall, and he countered with the YK ’92 brigade to help his regime resist the clamour for change, and particularly woo back the young people excited by the calls for democracy. The young Ruto took a break from his studies to enlist in the organisation that, within a short time, gained infamy for wanton looting of public resources.
When the top YK ’92 leadership under Mr Cyrus Jirongo fell foul of President Moi after the first multi-party elections in 1992, Mr Ruto played it clever, ingratiating himself into the Moi power structure, but also establishing an independent political profile that had him into a love-hate relationship with the then President.
He had made his first parliamentary bid for Eldoret North constituency in 1992, failing to dislodge veteran politician Reuben Chesire, but catching attention with youthful vigour and relentless attacks on his older opponent that showed neither fear nor respect for status. Come 1997, and Ruto won the seat, but to boot also mended fences with Moi.
As Moi started plotting his succession, he brought into his fold the young politician who would come to play a critical role in years to come.
After the 1997 election when Moi brought Mr Odinga into the Kanu fold, Ruto—then working closely with the president’s youngest son, Gideon, and political fixer Mark Too—played an important part in crafting the new-look ruling outfit. The ‘New Kanu’ taking shape ahead of the 2002 elections saw political greenhorn Uhuru Kenyatta brought in as one of four vice-chairmen alongside Noah Katana Ngala, Kalonzo Musyoka and Musalia Mudavadi in a new power structure that ejected then Vice President George Saitoti and other old-guard.
A sign that callow young man from Sugoi had finally arrived was illustrated one Sunday when President Moi summoned Kalenjin politicians, elders, community leaders to introduce to them those chosen to represent the community in the new dispensation at State House, Nakuru.
When ‘Total Man’ Nicholas Biwott, the once-all powerful cabinet minister, realised that his name was not on the list, he stood up angrily to protest. President Moi listened quietly, looked up to Ruto somewhere in the back of the room, and casually told him “Find something for Biwott”.
Ruto nodded, and retreated to an anteroom where Gideon Moi was monitoring proceedings. After hurried consultations, he came back to announce that Mr Biwott could have the post of Kanu Organising Secretary. When Mr Odinga led a mass exit from Kanu in protest at Moi’s naming of the young Kenyatta as his preferred successor, Ruto remained to back the doomed presidential bid, and was by his side when, at the Serena Hotel. He conceded defeat to Mwai Kibaki.
Uhuru assumed the role of Opposition leader with Ruto as a key lieutenant, but things took an interesting turn in 2005 when Raila and other key figures in the Kibaki government who had crossed over from Kanu in 2002 rejected a proposed new constitution.
They teamed up with Uhuru and Ruto in a movement driving ‘Orange’ No campaign against the ‘Banana’ Yes in the referendum. The Orange campaign morphed into the Orange Democratic Movement led by Raila, with Ruto and Mudavadi coming is as key lieutenants.
Meanwhile, Uhuru took what remained of Kanu into an alliance with Kibaki, looking to inherit the large Kikuyu vote that would be up for grabs when Kibaki exited.
In the 2007 elections, it was a straight fight between Kibaki and Raila, with Ruto successfully mobilising the Rift Valley vote for his new partner. The controversial re-election of President Kibaki triggered massive violence that almost split the country until a peace settlement brokered by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan saw Raila join the Kibaki government as Prime Minister.
Uhuru and Mudavadi came in as deputy premiers for respective sides of the Grand coalition, while Ruto was named Minister for Agriculture. Within a short time, relations between Raila and Ruto soured. Ruto had resented the fact that Mudavadi had been named Deputy PM ahead of him, yet he felt he had contributed more to the Raila campaign. Then Raila angered Ruto by backing the ejection of settlers in Mau Forest, accusing him of corruption and even announcing his suspension from the Cabinet, which was countermanded by President Kibaki.
The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was intervention of International Criminal Court (ICC) into the 2007 post-election violence. Initially when then ICC prosecutor came into the country to launch investigations, Raila was adamant that his side of the Grand Coalition government was innocent, saying, blame for the violence lay solely with the Kibaki side for allegedly stealing the 2007 elections.
When Ocampo finally released his list of suspects, Raila initially defended Ruto, saying he was a victim rather than a perpetrator. However, he finally came to support the ICC cases against Ruto and Uhuru, who were netted as the leading ‘commanders’ on either side of the 2007 divide.
The ICC trials were a seminal moment in Kenyan history. Mr Odinga might have calculated that his path to the presidency would be easier with two key foes out of the way, but everything rebounded when Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto joined forces ahead of the 2013 elections. Their Jubilee coalition won the polls, and Raila was out of luck for the third time.
But then came the famous “Handshake” the following year, that eventually led to President Kenyatta switching support to Raila and ditching Ruto.
By that time, Ruto was already campaigning for his own 2022 presidential bid and securing the loyalty of key Jubilee Party leaders, particularly from President Kenyatta’s Mt Kenya region, who would form the bulwark of his ‘Hustler Movement’.
