The new face of William Ruto as August polls approach

As UDA Secretary-General Veronica Maina was reading out resolutions at the party’s National Delegates Conference on Tuesday, one thing stood out: the party was granting Deputy President William Ruto a free hand to negotiate coalition deals with other like-minded outfits.

It stood out because as late as a month ago, the DP was dismissing calls for UDA to partner with other political formations as he pushed for what he called a national movement that would carry him over the line in the August 9 elections.

At the time, he referred to Musalia Mudavadi’s ANC and Moses Wetang’ula’s Ford Kenya as “village entities”. In the same breath, he dismissed as “tribal parties” the outfits that refused to fold up and join UDA, like Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria’s Chama Cha Kazi (CCK) and The Service Party (TSP) founded by former Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri.

‘Embracing’ tribal parties

The DP has gone full circle, and is now fully embracing the “village entities” and “tribal parties” without conditions.

He is seeking to counter the Azimio la Umoja Movement wave that is led by his arch-rival , ODM leader Raila Odinga, who enjoys the support of President Uhuru Kenyatta, Wiper boss Kalonzo Musyoka and more than 20 political parties.

“It may not have been his wish to dismiss the political parties, but the ground (political reality) was telling him something different,” said Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja in an interview.

Mr Sakaja is an ally of Mr Mudavadi, whose ANC party partnered with UDA and Ford Kenya to form Kenya Kwanza Alliance.

Embracing the small political parties after months of antagonising them shows that the DP is changing face as elections draw closer.

Attacking his boss

Mr Ruto, who for years restrained himself from directly attacking his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta, in his campaign rallies, has also shifted gears and he is now taking the Head of State head-on.

The DP is thus emerging to be a master of double-speak on many issues. Take for example the claims of election rigging. In January in Likuyani during his tour of Kakamega County, the DP scoffed at the alleged plot to steal the August elections.

“They have said that even if Ruto wins the deep state and the system will not allow the electoral agency to declare him the winner. Let me ask you, people of Likuyani, do you think I am somebody whose votes can be stolen?” he asked.

His statement echoed similar remarks he made during an interview on Citizen TV in December 2020 when he submitted a strong case that courts remain the only avenue where the claims of poll rigging can either be proved or disproved.

Stolen elections

“You cannot steal an election in Kenya and get away with it,” he charged, adding that the claim of stolen elections is a narrative woven by people who cannot live with the reality that one can fairly lose an election.

But during his recent tour of the US and UK, the DP shifted another gear once again and asked the international community to intervene to stop attempts to influence the outcome of the August presidential election.

Speaking at the Karson Institute for Race, Peace and Social Justice in Loyola University in Maryland, US, Ruto claimed that government agencies are trying to make decisions on people’s behalf.

“There are concerns that a clique of individuals are trying to play games with the rights of others to decide and make independent decisions and choices that they believe are correct,” he said.

“This is through blackmail, intimidation and use of the criminal justice system to influence leaders and citizens to vote in a certain way though Kenya has a robust constitution.”

While in the UK, DP Ruto sought to portray himself as an innocent bystander in government as he distanced himself from claims that the appointments in government were shared equally between him as the deputy and his boss, President Kenyatta, after the 2013 polls.

The DP instead insisted that the Jubilee administration was a unit headed by the President, who made all appointments.

“There were no dockets that were given to me. I didn’t appoint any minister anywhere. Everybody was appointed by the President of Kenya,” the DP said at Chatham House, UK.

But on Thursday, while addressing the Kenya Private Sector Roundtable meeting in Nairobi, the DP took credit for all the major flagship projects under the Jubilee administration, claiming that the President's Big Four Agenda would have been realised if he had not been side-lined in its implementation.

“These are signs of a person speaking from both sides of his mouth,” said political analyst and lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Herman Manyora, in an interview.

In his final Jamhuri Day address last December, the President basked in the glory of recent electricity connections, in which he claimed he has succeeded in connecting more than 8.6 million Kenyans to the national grid, a record he claimed was far beyond what any other regime has achieved since independence.

The President has taken credit for the reforms at the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), and the construction of more than 10,000 kilometres of tarmac roads across the country during his term in office.

But at the Kepsa event, DP Ruto wouldn’t let it pass.

“It is me who sat down with engineers Kamau and Mosonik and changed the building code. That is how we were able to construct the 10,000 tarmacked roads,” he said.

He also claimed that the surcharge in electricity connections had changed after he held a meeting with former Energy CS Charles Keter and Mr Kamau in his Karen office, where they changed the model of electricity connections.

“That is why 8.7 million new Kenyans have been connected to the grid,” he said, adding that another meeting with Marsabit Governor Mohamed Ali, then NHIF chairman, led to the reforms in the agency.

Big Four agenda

He also lamented that Executive Order No 1 of 2019, which elevated Interior Cs Fred Matiang’i to the first among equals in the Cabinet, had denied him the opportunity to work with the President over the implementation of Jubilee’s Big Four agenda.

“If I had the opportunity to deliver on the Big Four Agenda, Kenya would be a different country,” he said of the four pillars President Kenyatta unveiled in 2017 as his main focus areas in the final term of his presidency.

They are food security, affordable housing, universal health care and manufacturing.

“Instead of 2,000 houses that have been constructed, we would be talking houses in the range of 50,000, 60,000 or even 100,000 new units. The agriculture sector would be more productive,” said DP Ruto.

While at a campaign rally in President Kenyatta’s Gatundu South backyard on Friday, the DP was the disciplined number two.

All he could do was to plead with the president to spare him from persecution, referring to the Head of State’s preference for his main rival.

“Please tell him (the President) that Ruto has said that even if he has decided to help the riddles’ man (Mr Odinga), I plead with him humbly, that he should not unleash the same sword we used together on him (Mr Odinga) to cut my feet,” he said while on tour of Gatundu South.

Different tone

It was a markedly different tone from that which the DP has adopted lately when he addresses the president in his campaign rallies.

While in Mombasa a few months ago, the DP spoke about matapeli (tricksters), about his past support for President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga, which he implied was yet to be reciprocated.

In some instances, he has heaped praise on the President.

“Under President Kenyatta, I have learnt a lot and I aspire to inherit his track record and build on it while improving it to encompass new horizons. I guarantee the President that his space and legacy is well-protected and he will remain my friend as we take over, God-willing,” DP Ruto said.

At the UDA NDC, initially, the DP sat and seemed unperturbed as his allies attacked the President. When he stood to speak, he asked them not to insult the President. By then the allies were long done with their speeches.

Meanwhile, while the DP has often chided ODM for being associated with violence, it seems he was advocating for a different form of violence. While campaigning in Machakos in January, he asked the ODM leader to stop using violence as a ladder to ascend to the presidency.

“He (Mr Odinga) should stop justifying violence, take responsibility and put in place measures to curb the vice within his party ahead of the August election,” he said.

Boda boda crackdown

Yet, as the government cracked down on boda boda, a different Ruto was urging motorcycle owners to storm police stations across the country and take back their bikes.

“All boda boda operators whose motorbikes were impounded and fined the unlawful amount of money should go and collect their motorbikes at police stations and be refunded their cash because they are genuine business people,” DP Ruto said.