President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto. The two have since fallen out with the President openly supporting Ruto's main challenger, Raila Odinga.
| File | Evans Habil | Nation Media GroupPolitics
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Just who’s fooling whom? Fights between the Big Two turn ugly
What you need to know:
- The very people who have the instruments to end corruption are accusing each other of promoting the vice.
- At Sagana III, President Kenyatta painted his deputy in the colours of a power-hungry and corrupt individual.
All pretence is gone, with President Uhuru Kenyatta and his estranged Deputy William Ruto going for each other’s jugular.
After the tell-all “Sagana Three” conference on February 23, in which Mr Kenyatta painted his deputy in the colours of a power-hungry and corrupt individual who has absconded duty, Dr Ruto took the cue and is using his overseas travel to hit back at his boss.
During Sagana Three, Mr Kenyatta portrayed his deputy as dishonest, criticised the performance of dockets under his supervision like the Agriculture Ministry under the 50/50 power-sharing deal during their first term in office, and censured the DP for engaging in premature campaigns that unsettled his administration in the second term.
The President also accused him of being not being truthful about the March 9, 2018 handshake and hoodwinking Kenyans with his ‘hustler’ campaign promises.
The President and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Raila Odinga leader shook hands in March 2018 to end tension and violence that had engulfed the country after the August 8, 2017 elections and the rerun on October 26.
The DP has responded in kind, during his tour of the US. He has talked of plans to rig the August 9 elections, accused the government of “budgeted corruption” and running an economy that is “captured by cartels and exclusionist”.
He also accused President Kenyatta of being a hostage of Mr Odinga.
As occupants of the two most powerful offices in the land whack each other, the public is left at a loss as to who is telling the truth, and who is fooling who.
Despite being aware of what they are accusing each other of, why did they take corrective action, Kenyans want to know.
“Let’s support this old man (Odinga) and help him protect our interests and legacy. When this young man (Ruto) toes the line in future, we will consider him,” President Kenyatta said.
Threats and intimidation
Jubilee Vice-Chairman David Murathe, a fierce long-time critic of the DP, feels Dr Ruto “is stooping too low” in his utterances in the US.
“Why does the Deputy President of Kenya go about talking those kinds of things in a foreign country? Should anything happen to the President tonight, he is the president,” Mr Murathe said, adding that Dr Ruto has sensed defeat in the August elections “and is now practising the role of the leader of the official opposition”.
Dr Ruto will be heading to the United Kingdom after the US leg of his trip. His handlers have also planned a series of public engagements in the UK.
The words he uttered in the US have made his overseas tour a closely watched one.
During an event at Loyola University’s Karson Institute for Race, Peace and Social Justice, the DP said there is a scheme to rig the August 9 elections and that Kenyans’ right to exercise their freedom of choice is at stake.
“The biggest issue on the ballot is the democracy of our nation and whether we truly have the opportunity to make free choices devoid of blackmail, threats and intimidation,” he said in Baltimore.
“That is what informs the current push by many Kenyans to say ‘hatupangwingwi’, meaning we want to make our choices without being choreographed, chaperoned, blackmailed or intimidated.”
The Suba South MP and National Assembly Minority Leader said Dr Ruto claimed nobody would steal his votes barely two weeks ago.
The DP has used every opportunity available to counter President Kenyatta’s accusations against him.
At Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he portrayed the President as having failed to tackle sleaze in government, terming its extent “budgeted corruption”.
“The other issue is budgeted corruption. Close to Sh100 billion is budgeted every year that has no oversight,” the DP said.
“That amount has grown between four and five-fold in the last 10 years. When there are accountability problems and oversight challenges, the more money you put in opaque institutions the greater the corruption,” he said.
The DP did not name the “opaque institutions”, and his campaign spokesman Hussein Mohamed, who is with him in the US, did not respond to Saturday Nation questions seeking clarification.
According to Dr Richard Bosire, a political scientist, each of the two men share blame for failing to tackle corruption.
“The public knows there has been corruption in government and Ruto cannot say he was not aware. Unfortunately, the President could not prosecute these cases. He wasted the opportunity,” Dr Bosire said.
He recalls the day President Kenyatta published a list of people the Ethics and Anti-Corruption (EACC) was investigating for misuse or embezzling of public funds.
“At that time, one would say the window was open but it gradually closed. Any action the President tried to take thereafter was politicised but we cannot excuse him for that,” he said.
“President Kenyatta is the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces and head of government. He should deal with these issues decisively, regardless of the noise being made from the political class. He did not.”
As the DP attacked the President and the government on his tour abroad, Mr Kenyatta’s spokesperson, Kanze Dena, was defending his performance and legacy.
“The President has done his work with Kenyans as the priority,” Ms Dena said during an interview with Inooro FM.
“Food prices have risen because of inflation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. We are a growing nation with a rising population whose demands cannot be met at once.”
She said the fight on corruption “cannot be won overnight”.
“It is an ongoing process, not something that can be achieved magically through abracadabra. People at Kenya Power have been dismissed. It is the same at Kenya Medical Supplies Authority.”
Fundraising event
Mr Martin Andati, another analyst, questioned the rationale of Dr Ruto using the international stage to hit back at the government and President Kenyatta.
“The sad bit of it is that it has never yielded results. He is going out there, making noise and seeking sympathy. But will that really translate to votes back home? Americans have their own problems. One also wonders if they are the right people Kenya’s Deputy President should be taking his grievances about elections to,” Mr Andati said.
Dr Ruto’s visit of the US and the UK is also a fundraising event for his campaigns.
A dinner hosted in his honour in Maryland last night was $250 (Sh28,500) per person, being the cheapest ticket (silver). The gold ticket was going for $500 while the diamond was priced at $1,000.
The prices were criticised by some Kenyans in the US as being too high.
Critics of DP Ruto also had a field day, after it emerged that his reported visit to the White House just ended at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
The building houses the Executive Office of the President and the National Security Council, but is not actually in the White House compound.
“Why don’t you say the truth? There is a difference between the White House and Eisenhower Building. Ruto visited the latter,” Jubilee supporter Pauline Njoroge tweeted when Mr Mohamed claimed the DP and ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi were at the White House.
“Why are you lying? This is uncalled for,” another Kenya, Yuech Manyien, tweeted.
