Kibaki and Ruto in secret talks

• Private consultations explain minister’s sudden change of heart over Waki report and upbeat mood among Rift Valley MPs

Cabinet minister William Ruto has been holding private consultations with President Kibaki over implementation of the Waki Report, the Saturday Nation can reveal.

Sources familiar with the meetings said the President may have influenced the Agriculture minister’s sudden change of heart to back implementation of the report which he had earlier vehemently opposed.

Trade minister and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is said to have attended at least two of the meetings, the last one which was held on Wednesday, the eve of the Cabinet meeting which named a 10-member team to study and set a programme of implementing the Waki recommendations on post-election violence.

An MP who did not want to be quoted discussing presidential matters, said the deliberations may have convinced the Eldoret North MP to abandon his hardline stance against the report in favour of a middle-ground approach.

And in a revelation that is likely to stir political waters, the source said that President Kibaki urged the two ministers to bury their differences and work towards pulling their communities together ahead of the 2012 general elections. 

“The President invited the two ministers to State House for tea on two different occasions over the past three weeks.

Although I cannot tell you in detail what they discussed, I can confirm that the Waki report and the political future of the two leaders was on the table,” the MP said.

Contacted, sources familiar with the President’s official and political calendar could neither confirm nor deny that the meetings had taken place.

An aide of Mr Kenyatta said: “The matter is sensitive and I don’t want to discuss it at this stage. ”

But a Kanu MP close to Mr Kenyatta said the matter is in its formative stages adding that it would not be good to pre-empt it.

“It is true we want to bring Mr Ruto on board but this is just one of our strategies for 2012 and we have several others,” the MP said.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga, whose support for the implementation of the report which calls for the establishment of a tribunal to try those responsible for the post-election violence, was the opposite of what Mr Ruto had earlier campaigned for, said he was unaware of the meetings.

Mr Odinga said: “I am not aware of the meetings between Ruto and the President. However, he is a minister who has a right to meet with the President any time he pleases. If they have met as you say I believe there is nothing sinister behind those meetings.”

The rapport between President Kibaki and Mr Ruto appeared to be having another positive effect on the President’s approval among Rift Valley leaders.

In another surprising development, Rift Valley MPs from the Kalenjin community were this week praising the President for the way he has handled the controversial report which has divided the coalition government down the middle.

Nominated MP Musa Sirma of ODM praised President Kibaki’s call for the report’s implementation to be tempered with mercy.

“When he first made this call, I thought he was just doing it for public relations purposes. But I am now convinced that he really means it. I believe that he has the interests of this country at heart and we ought to support his efforts. That is why we have taken this new stand,” said Mr Sirma.

Another Rift Valley MP, Mr Joshua Kutuny (Cherangany), attributed Mr Ruto’s change of heart to the “cordial working relations between the minister and the President”.