Ruto fights back as graft fells more allies

Shockwave after shockwave, Deputy President William Ruto has not had peace of mind since he assumed the second highest political office in Kenya after the March 2013 General Election.

The self-styled “hustler” has spent a lot of time as Deputy President extinguishing one fire after another.

And in the past two weeks, he has made many trips to Malindi and Kericho to ensure his Jubilee Party wins the two seats in the National Assembly and the Senate.

The latest shockwave is the Sh791 million National Youth Service (NYS) scandal that has landed close to Mr Ruto’s doorstep after his long-time aide was mentioned in former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru’s affidavit.

In the affidavit, Ms Waiguru avers that Mr Farouk Kibet is closely associated with the key suspect in the NYS scam, Ben Gethi. “…The reports indicated that there were close relations between Farouk Kibet and Ben Gethi and indeed some payments made by Gethi include a payment to Mr Kibet.”

President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been away in Israel, is yet to make a statement on Waiguru’s revelation, which could put him in an awkward situation in efforts to rein in the “Ruto men” as demanded by a section of Kikuyu elders.   

Besides Mr Kibet, two of Mr Ruto’s closest political allies, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale and Senate Deputy Minority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen, are also mentioned adversely by Ms Waiguru as having had a role in the loss of public funds at the NYS.

In addition, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has also been mentioned as a beneficiary.

This has not been lost on URP, and Mr Duale — in his response to the damning affidavit — said as much. “If you look at those named, Duale, Murkomen and Farouk and you join the dots, you will see where the last dot ends,” he said.

GRAVE ACCUSATIONS
But Mr Ruto’s office said the adverse mention of certain individuals in corruption allegations is not enough to draw Mr Ruto’s name into the mix.

“I don’t know what criteria is used to judge some people as being closer to the DP than others. Matters of graft are personal responsibility, just like all other crimes. There’s no collective responsibility,” Mr Ruto’s office said.

This is not the first time the axe has landed close to Mr Ruto’s office.

After President Uhuru Kenyatta’s March 26, 2015 State of the Nation address, the people suspended over corruption included Maryanne Kitany, then Mr Ruto’s chief of staff.

Also suspended and eventually sacked were former Cabinet Secretaries Davis Chirchir (Energy), Felix Koskei (Agriculture) and Kazungu Kambi (Labour).

All of them were closely associated with the URP wing of the ruling coalition.

Their exit from the Cabinet caused an uproar that Mr Ruto and his party were the targets of the anti-corruption purge.

In public, Mr Ruto and his allies deny these allegations. But privately, it is reported the DP has not taken these actions lightly, seeing them as TNA’s agenda of painting him and his party as the most corrupt.

Mr Ruto’s turbulent tenure at Harambee House Annex started with the ‘Hustler’s Jet’ scam, barely a month after Jubilee came to power in May 2013.

The government spent Sh100 million in hiring a luxury jet for Mr Ruto to travel to Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Nigeria and Gabon between May 16 and 19 to lobby for Kenya’s ICC agenda ahead of an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa in June the same year.

A report by the Public Accounts Committee on the questionable hiring of the luxury jet was thrown out by Parliament in August 2015 after Jubilee MPs ganged up against it, saving Mr Ruto the blushes.

LAND GRABBING
On Sunday, Mr Ruto’s office said: “Parliament and other investigating agencies concluded that the DP had nothing to do with the process. He was and is not the procurement officer in his office. Furthermore, the Treasury only paid Sh18.5 million and not Sh100 million as alleged,” the office said.

As if the hustler jet scam was not enough, Mr Ruto was again in the news for all the wrong reasons when Lang’ata Road Primary School pupils were teargased in January 2015 while protesting alleged grabbing of their playground by Weston Hotel, which the DP has publicly acknowledged as having interests in, but denied attempts to grab the playground.

The Lang’ata Primary School playground attracted the attention of world leaders, including Pope Francis who was in the country last November.
“I am also aware of the serious problem posed by faceless “private developers” who hoard land and even attempt to appropriate the playgrounds of your children’s schools,” the Pope said amid ululation.
The attempted land-grab of the playground resulted in hashtags and memes by unconvinced Kenyans mocking then Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu’s claim that the grabbers were three people sharing the surname Singh.

The Deputy President has also been at pains to defend his source of wealth and the millions he gives at fundraisers across the country.

The opposition Cord has claimed the millions were corruption money, but Mr Ruto denies that.

When he is not fighting back corruption allegations levelled at his office, or to people close to him, Mr Ruto’s time has been spent mulling over post-election violence charges against him in The Hague, and the rebellion that is enveloping his own Rift Valley backyard where Kanu has been making in-roads.

The rebellion resulted in Mr Ruto’s Jubilee Alliance Party candidate in Nyangores county ward by-election losing to an aspirant supported by Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto.

But Mr Ruto’s office on Sunday asked: “Why is there no such talk in the Coast where half of Cord MPs have deserted their party for Jubilee? Why is it not called a rebellion against Raila Odinga? Or in Western Kenya where opposition MPs have broken ranks with their parties?”

POLITICAL CLOUT
Indeed, the March 7 Kericho by-election has been turned into a referendum on the Deputy President, hinged on his pre-election pledges to the South Rift.

It was not imaginable that Mr Ruto would be putting up a spirited fight to reclaim a seat he himself made vacant in a region that voted for him almost to a man in the 2013 election.  

A loss in Kericho to a resurgent Kanu led by Baringo Senator Gideon Moi would be devastating for the deputy president, who has been keen to project the Kalenjin Rift, whose support he used to bargain a power sharing deal with President Kenyatta, as under his lock and key.

Kericho residents are said to be particularly uncomfortable with the alleged appointment of Mr Charles Keter’s relatives to the government at the expense of other qualified professionals from the region.

Other grievances include a long list of unfulfilled promises on road construction, expansion of hospitals and agriculture, as well as a seeming fatigue over pronouncements about Mr Ruto’s intention to vie for the presidency after Mr Kenyatta.