Written by
Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Kenya. As Kenyan elections are around the corner, Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto a leading presidential contender, seeks backing in Kampala. According to Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni his meeting with Mr Ruto last week was simply a gathering of neighbouring leaders. But to State House watchers in Nairobi it was all about a rival candidate on manoeuvres ahead of next year’s elections.
Ruto’s side of the story
Despite lack of independent evidence, the Deputy President President team briefed journalists revealing that President Museveni favours Ruto’s presidency over Raila Odinga, and that an endorsement is on the way.
However Museveni’s officials were scrupulously diplomatic, insisting that there was little political significance to the meeting. Many of Ruto’s business interests, including large farming operations, are in Uganda, although the source of his wealth has never been explained.
Denis Kiprotich a political analyst in an interview with Africa-Press said he does not think that the Deputy President Ruto was in Uganda to seek endorsement due to the fact that Mr Odinga has not yet come out openly to say that he will be contesting in the upcoming elections. “But if the voting is tomorrow Ruto can win due to his strong support on the grass route. And even the age factor favours him,” Mr Kiprotich said.
Meet Ruto
William Kipchirchir Samoei Arap Ruto 55 year is the 11th Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya who assumed office in 2013. He served as the Acting President of Kenya between 6 and 8 October 2014 when president Uhuru Kenyatta was at the International Criminal Court (ICC), in the Hague Netherlands.
He has served in various ministerial positions including the Ministries of Home Affairs, Agriculture, and Higher Education Science and Technology. Ruto was among the list of people who were indicted to stand trial at the ICC for their involvement in Kenya’s 2007/2008 political violence. However, the ICC case was faced with challenges especially concerning withdrawal of key prosecution witnesses.
Ruto fallout with Kenyatta
Nearing the end of his second and final term, President Kenyatta’s relationship with his deputy and his likely successor Ruto took a turn in early 2018, when the latter entered a pact with opposition leader Raila Odinga.
The Jubilee Party, founded in September 2016 to consolidate a 2013 alliance between Kenyatta and Ruto, is now firmly in Kenyatta’s control after it replaced its senior leaders in the country’s legislature.
Kenyatta has accused his deputy of doing early campaigns to succeed him, instead of focusing on their legacy projects. On the other side, Ruto sees the move to limit his likely succession as a betrayal of their pre-2013 pact that was made while both of them were facing criminal charges at the International Criminal Court.
President Uhuru forging a coalition with Odinga’s ODM
Last month President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee party took the first step within the party structures tabled proposals before the National Management Committee (NMC) to forge a coalition with Mr Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)
The Deputy Secretary General Joshua Kuttuny, who attended the meeting in Nairobi, told Nation a wide range of issues were discussed including coalitions with like-minded parties.
Orange Democratic Movement deputy party leader, Hassan Joho, revealed that the planned coalition with the ruling party is aimed at transforming the March 9, 2018 “Handshake” the political truce between President Kinyatta and Mr Odinga into a formal pact and to bring together all like-minded leaders for a united country ahead of the 2022 elections.
Choosing the right time
Ruto’s meeting with Museveni happened in time when his rivals in Nairobi are stuck in court as they try to rescue their Building Bridges Initiative. As another sign of the Deputy President’s confidence, his aides told journalists that their man had asked Museveni to intervene as a regional elder statesman to heal Ruto’s rift with President Kenyatta. Relations between Kenyatta and Museveni have been warm for much of the last decade, that would be an important test.
