Atwoli turns war with Ruto into iPhone-smashing show

Whatever the beef between Deputy President William Ruto and Cotu Secretary-General Francis Atwoli, there is no denying the fact the hatred between the two is deep.

In fact, the beef is so deep that if the two were to cross path, the likelihood of a physical confrontation cannot be ruled out.

A sign of this beef was played out last week on two separate occasions by the two men.

While addressing mourners during the burial of Sergeant Kipyegon Kenei, the DP took a swipe at DCI boss George Kinoti for allegedly playing politics instead of investigating crime.

2022 BALLOT

“Some have been going around this country saying that I will not be there in 2022 and they are still Scot-free,” Ruto said, in what was a dig at the Cotu boss after he declared that Ruto will not be on the ballot in 2022.

Two days later, and in what was perhaps a response to the DP, Atwoli smashed his mobile phone on the ground in anger. He appeared to have been overcome by emotion while addressing the subject of a reported Sh39 billion fake arms deal and subsequent death of a police officer attached to Ruto’s office.

“We are on roaming telephones. The Deputy President wants to tell us that Rashid Echesa and the wazungu went to his office for an hour and 22 minutes and yet nobody called him to inform him that there were some strangers in his office and yet that is the second-highest office in the land? Let him not take us for fools,” a charged Atwoli said before smashing his mobile phone to the ground.

Known for his larger than life persona and love for the finer things of life, this was the second time in less than a year that Atwoli was smashing away his phone, which techies describe as an iPhone 11 pro-Max.

SH170, 000

The first time was in October last year while on a live show hosted by Citizen TV’s Jeff Koinange when, midway through the programme, the phone rang and instead of picking it he hurled it away. Checked carefully, the two incidences bear similarities.

Just like the case last Monday, the incident in the TV studio in 2019 happened as Atwoli was discussing the deputy president.

"The DP will not be the next president. If I were him, I would not waste even a single cent campaigning to be the next president,” Atwoli stated, explaining that Ruto was handicapped in the presidential race due to his advisors.

"William Ruto can never be the president of Kenya! If he had good advisors, maybe he could stand a chance.” It is not clear whether the two phones Atwoli smashed between October 2019 and March 2020 were iPhones. The retail price of that type of phone is about Sh170,000.

A keen observer can tell that the story of Atwoli and his penchant for smashing phones is the story of the character of two individuals, their egos and a show of hatred one harbours against the other.

FOUGHT WARS
The two have never had any form of association since the Jubilee party seized power in 2013, a period that has been characterised by Atwoli’s personalised attacks on the DP. The Cotu boss is wary of the DP and his men, the people he thinks are scheming to kick him out of Cotu by any means necessary.

He has fought wars with the DP’s men over the control of the billions of workers’ funds at the NSSF; he has accused the DP and his men also of “salivating for the money” especially when Kazungu Kambi was Labour CS; a position he got through the support of the DP.

Atwoli has always described himself as a vanguard against stealing of workers’ funds, claiming that he would rather die than see workers’ funds stolen.

He has also accused the DP’s people of linking him to the killing of former Kabete MP George Muchai, who was his deputy at Cotu.

Muchai was shot dead along Nairobi’s Kenyatta Avenue in 2015 and the DP’s people sought to exploit the frosty relationship between the two to deal Atwoli a deadly blow.

But Atwoli is also wealthy, a fact he never hides, and smashing the phone could also be another case of a rich man displaying his wealth.