If Uhuru and Raila reconciled Ruto shouldn’t be estranged

This week, President Uhuru Kenyatta visited Nakuru to launch a cement factory, and while we had thought he had finally found the raw materials to build his relationship with his deputy William Ruto, he chose to do a lap of honour around the neighbourhood to smoke out his haters, warning them to stop biting hands that have never fed them.

This is not what we had in mind when we asked the President to show some commitment in the fight against enemies of development.

Kenyans have more pressing issues to deal with currently: we are almost being overrun by locusts, the coronavirus may have sneaked into the country under the cover of darkness, and we still haven’t been told why Babu Owino was allowed to pay bail in instalments.

Instead of the President giving us an update on the stadiums he promised to build before the end of his second term, he chose to hunt down Kimani Ngunjiri, the Bahati MP.

If only we knew we were electing someone who stops at road junctions to respond to every irritant that throws words his way!

RUTO RELATIONSHIP

Now, Kenyan men are asking whether the annual men’s conference happened without their knowledge because, from the happenings this week, many have been in a consensus in disowning their kin.

It started with the deputy president when he revealed that there was only one marriage he was in, and it wasn’t with President Kenyatta.

And before we could recover from the shock, the former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu asked senators to provide evidence that he had children. That for a man whose last name is Baba Yao — their father.

While Dr Ruto does not need proof of his marriage to Rachael, he surely needs to show evidence that he is still together with President Kenyatta because, from his public engagements lately, Kenyans are worried that his body has not been speaking the same mother tongue as his words.

The DP no longer wears matching shirts with his boss, nor address the press together and swing hands like smitten lovebirds thereafter.

We might forgive the two for not buying each other flowers lately, but when the beef crosses over to their political groupings it becomes a matter of national concern.

BBI EQUATION

The March 2018 handshake was supposed to cool political temperatures and provide adequate legroom for the President to fulfil his pre-election promises, but the reverse has been achieved.

The handshake has not only fomented war in the Jubilee Party but it has also given birth to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), which is now causing more divisions than an algebraic equation.

Granted, health experts have warned us that the handshake is one of the risk factors towards the spread of the coronavirus.

But, despite Dr Ruto and his political allies being in the isolation ward, there is no indication that the anti-BBI strain is going to die any time soon.

He might deny it, but everyone can see that Dr Ruto doesn't look like a happy man.

Whereas he has constantly reminded us that he is investing in heaven, where politicians cannot steal his happiness, his latest obsession with quoting the scriptures points to a man who is either feeling lonely from presidential neglect, or studying for a PhD in theology, but we are not sure about the latter.

KENYA'S PANACEA

We know that the Constitution doesn't allow the President to fire his deputy, and if the BBI is going to burn the bridge between the two it should at least first change its name to Burning Bridges Initiative so that the government can justify the allocation of funds to build new bridges.

To this end, the President owes Dr Ruto the truth — and a pair of new binoculars.

Many good things were said by the proponents of the BBI when it was launched.

We were told it was going to be the vaccine that immunised Kenyans from the adverse effects of verbal diarrhoea and bad blood.

There was collective relief when we were assured that it would also cure those already tested positive for negative ethnicity and negative for moral integrity.

If those who were previously deemed corrupt have been forgiven in the spirit of the BBI, why can't those with opposing views also find accommodation without being asked to buy uniform first?

NO ONE GAINS

There is no joy to be derived when the President and his deputy feud. The Constitution ties them at the hip until the next elections.

If President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga — once sworn political enemies — reconciled, there is no reason why the President and his deputy shouldn’t bury their differences in a shallow grave.

Mr Oguda comments on topical issues; [email protected]