Isaac Ruto should not be surprised by UhuRuto attack
What you need to know:
- Isaac must count himself lucky. He got off with a rap on the wrist.
- President was meant to proudly, loudly and arrogantly endorse the DP and put the governor squarely in his place and firmly in the shade.
I am surprised that Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto is surprised that Deputy President William Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta attacked him politically at a church service-cum-fund-raiser in his backyard.
The governor says his home team and the visiting team of the DP had signed, sealed and delivered a no-politics pact to govern the proceedings of last Sunday’s church funds-drive, which the visitors unashamedly broke.
Isaac must count himself lucky. He got off with a rap on the wrist. The President was invited to Bomet to attack him much the way his father travelled to Murang’a to fight to the ground dissenting Mau Mau hero Bildad Kaggia in 1965.
The President was meant to proudly, loudly and arrogantly endorse the DP and put the governor squarely in his place and firmly in the shade. Intimidated people of the Rift Valley were meant to fall into the DP’s column after that meeting.
The prayer service-cum-funds drive was the excuse rather than the reason for the high-powered visit to his backyard. The entire enterprise would have failed if the DP did not attack the governor and be supported by the President.
The venture would have come a cropper if the Rutos did not come across as having unfinished political business between them and if the President and DP did not make it clear that it was the governor who was in the wrong.
But to pack the knock-out punch, the two needed to name and attack the governor as the obstacle to the lofty ambitions of the DP, the United Republican Party (URP) and the Jubilee Alliance Party (JAP) and an impediment to Kenya’s unity and prosperity.
The only people who could execute that mucky business publicly without batting an eyelid are Senator Kipchumba Murkomen, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale and Gatundu South Member of Parliament Moses Kuria.
But the day did not belong to these inheritors of sycophancy from Shariff Nassir, Kariuki Chotara, Wilson Leitich and Mulu Mutisya; it belonged to the President. But, alas, despite prompting by the DP, he avoided a Kaggia-style attack on the the governor.
And he lost the plot altogether when he attacked newspapers, and not the governor, for the DP’s woes. Incredibly, the President even wondered aloud what the Rutos were bickering about and why it could not be solved through dialogue!
Of course, he knows, and was reminded, of the problem when the DP asked Isaac to agree to be led and emulate former President Moi who sat tight for 12 years as Vice-President. That translates as, Sir, tell Mr Ruto not to oppose my leadership.
REMIND HIM
Sir, tell him that I am the reigning Kalenjin political kingpin and I am on track to succeed you in 2022. Remind him that with your support, not even his alliance with Baringo Senator Gideon Moi can stop my march to the presidency.
The DP was telling his boss to crush the governor for him and with good reason. He and Mr Murkomen held a similar fund-raiser in Bomet last August, but the latter’s attack on Mr Ruto did not blunt or stop his criticism of the DP.
Mr Ruto sought presidential help because even when last November Mr Duale publicly accused the governor of abusing his office and misusing public funds as if they were his mother’s, the man appears to have not only survived, but also thrived.
The DP needed the President’s help because even his dictatorial move last month to sack Nominated URP Members of the Bomet County Assembly (MCAs) because they back Mr Ruto and not him, is being challenged in court.
So, one, what does this mean for the DP? He lost because the vitriolic attack and naming and shaming he sought did not happen. Now he has no higher office to turn to.
Angry and arrogant, he is unlikely to quickly consider dialogue with Mr Ruto.
Two, what does this mean for the church? You cannot divorce politics from religion; religion is politics and politics is religion. The danger is that the church in Kenya runs the risk of becoming a veritable battleground for competing political interests.
Three, political fund-raising is back. So MPs, senators, MCAs, governors, CSs, civil service fat cats and parastatal top dogs must now raise and give money to and for chief guests at sundry fund-raisers.
This means ordinary citizens will give harambee money to get government services and tenders. It means that public-funded projects will mushroom and their costs will skyrocket.
Opanga is a media consultant; [email protected]
