Ruto’s mettle as Deputy President

Calvin Coolidge once disclosed why he enjoyed his time as US vice-president.

He revealed that the job never interfered with his mandatory 11 hours of sleep a day. The implication here was that the US vice-presidency is an idler’s job.

Another vice-president, John Adams, defined the job saying: “The vice-presidency is the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”

John Nance Garner was more blunt. He compared the vice-presidency to a “bucket of warm spit”.

Like Coolidge, Deputy President William Ruto could be enjoying his new job which he has taken up with gusto -- but for a different reason.

Mr Ruto has taken advantage of the new Constitution -- which he opposed in the 2010 referendum -- and he appears keen to re-configure the office which has initially been overshadowed by the presidency, or comes out as an appendage.

One of the most defining features of the office is that the Constitution mandates the Deputy President to sit in for the President when he is absent.

Aricle 147(3) says: Subject to Article 134, when the President is absent or is temporarily incapacitated, and during any other period that the President decides, the Deputy President shall act as the President.

And, in case a President dies in office, the Deputy is mandated to complete the remaining term.

In the past week, President Kenyatta has been out of the country, first to attend a conference on Somalia in London and then the World Economic Forum in South Africa.

Mr Ruto has made headlines at least four times this wekk, and it looks as though there will be more going by his mode of operation.

But perhaps it is his action on the insecurity in Mandera and Bungoma that best illustrate the face of the second most powerful position in the country.

While President Kenyatta was in Cape Town yesterday, Mr Ruto ordered the deplayment of army troops to Mandera County to disarm local and foreign groups terrorising residents.

He said Kenya and Ethiopia were engaged in securing their common border. “We have dispatched the Kenya Defence Forces to carry out a disarmament exercise in Mandera,” he said.

Mr Ruto also instructed the Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo to send an additional 200 officers to Mandera to beef up security.

And Friday, Mr Ruto flew to Bungoma and ordered police officers to use maximum force in dealing with criminal gangs.

“There are those who think the guns police have lack bullets. Any person armed to cause mayhem will be shot. The attacks and killing of innocent citizens should be immediately stopped.”

President Kenyatta, who returned to the country that morning from London, was in Makueni Thursday for the burial of Senator Mutula Kilonzo before he flew to South Africa later that evening.

Mr Ruto’s conduct is far different from that of his predecessors Daniel Moi, Kalonzo Musyoka, Moody Awori, George Saitoti and Mwai Kibaki who lived in their bosses’ shadows.

They were always keen to ensure that they never walked ahead of the President or made proclamations that could be deemed to overshadow him.

Mr Ruto may have elected to take the route of former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, touted as the most powerful vice-president in US history.

Mr Ruto’s United Republican Party entered into a 50-50 pre-election power-sharing agreement with Mr Kenyatta’s The National Alliance to deliver State House for the Jubilee Coalition.

This informs Mr Ruto’s influence in an arrangement which some political analysts see as a co-presidency.

Writing in the Sunday Nation two weeks ago, veteran journalist Kwendo Opanga said that thanks to the Constitution, Kenya “got two presidents for the price of one”.

But it could also be a signal that President Kenyatta’s working style is designed to give the deputy a free hand in execution of his mandate.

However, it could also be attributable to Mr Ruto’s character, energy and charisma.

Mr Odinga’s former top adviser Miguna Miguna describes Mr Ruto as restless.

“Ruto is charismatic, articulate, hardworking, rumbustious and ambitious. He is also extremely restless,” writes Mr Miguna in his memoirs, Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya.

Mr Ruto on Thursday told off top government officials from the Treasury and the Ministry of Energy, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and Kenya Power who have been fighting to raise electricity tariffs.

Power operations

“There is no justification for this [tariff increases], we cannot subsidise Kenya Power operations forever. Tariff reviews cannot just be upwards but urgently need to be reviewed downwards,” Mr Ruto said.

He said the government had shelved the planned review of tariffs to protect households and businesses from knock-on effects of expensive power.

“Kenya Power has to sort out any inefficiencies in its operations as the government will not accept any proposal to increase power tariffs,” Mr Ruto said after a meeting.

Earlier, he had helped broker a deal with the Treasury for the release of Sh205 billion to the counties.

His true mettle also came to the fore when, in an unprecedented move, he denounced a letter from Kenya’s UN ambassador petitioning the Security Council to terminate the ICC’s crimes against humanity charges against him and President Kenyatta.

By Saturday evening, neither Mr Kenyatta nor the government spokesman had disowned the letter raising speculation whether he endorsed the strongly worded 13-page document that was circulated among members of the UN Security Council ahead of a visit by the ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

But the Constitution also spells out what the Deputy President cannot do when his boss is absent. He cannot nominate or appoint judges, cabinet secretaries or ambassadors, confer honours or pardon offenders.

The two principals’ media handlers have been keen to sustain a well-choreographed camaraderie amidst criticism the new administration is “over-copying” the Obama White House.