No more Mr Nice Guy Ruto Grows Bolder

Opinion

In the past weeks, the Deputy President has grown bold and is now addressing his boss the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta directly. Initially, this was left to his attack dogs under very strict briefs from him, a job they did effectively well. Ndindi Nyoro, Rigathi Gachagua, and the Kikuyu member of parliament Kimani Ichungwa are just a few of Ruto's attack dogs that he has used in the past to effectively pass a message to the President and the executive at large. In all their rallies, the above-named politicians and their allies have directed a number of attacks and expletives towards the statehouse and have been unrelenting in doing so. It is widely believed that all these attacks were sanctioned by Deputy President William Samoei Ruto. 

Last week, the statehouse announced that the president will be embarking on a two-week tour of the Mount Kenya region and will use that opportunity to explain to the country why he fell out with his bosom friend the Deputy President. It is widely believed that this is what triggered the outburst that we saw in Kirinyaga on Saturday 30th, from the Deputy President as he led an onslaught from his team towards his boss (see video). In this video captured live by Citizen Tv from this rally, Ruto is heard addressing the president directly and at some point even becoming insubordinate. He said, 'I want to tell my friend the president of Kenya, that the people of Kenya rejected a project 20years ago, there is no way the people of Kenya today, in the 21st century can elect anybody's puppet. The people of Kenya are going to make a conscious decision and they will not buy the NONSENSE of a project from anybody, including a project from the deep state and the statehouse!' It is important to note that the Deputy President is on record saying that there is nothing like the deep state and it doesn't exist anywhere and if it did he would know about it since he is the Deputy President of this country. So when he makes such a reference to it several days later one is left to wonder when and where did this deep state thing come from. 

The agitated Deputy President finally had the nerve to address his boss directly and chose some very interesting words to use. The first word I noted was the use of the word  'project'. when he says a project was rejected 20years ago, he is actually referring to the president himself, who at that time was running for president for the first time and was seen as a state project fronted by the then head of state the late Daniel T. Moi. The young and novice Uhuru could not shake off the term 'state project' that was interestingly pinned on him by the then opposition leader Raila Amollo Odinga, who is now himself, being referred to as the state project in this video. The second word he uses was, 'nonsense'. It is very disrespectful to use this word when directly referring to the perceived actions of your boss. It's demeaning and gives an impression of a lack of respect towards the addressed person. There were better ways and words he could have chosen to drive his point home. This public outburst serves to showcase some of his not-so-appealing character that Ruto has effectively kept hidden until he made this blunder. A master of pretense and character camouflage, Ruto has managed to fool many voters into believing he is a saint, but such outbursts (and there will be many to come) prove otherwise.

I believe that when the president finally comes out and says what exactly his deputy did, that drove a wedge between them, most of those who believed Ruto's charade of how he believes in God and how humble he is will be very surprised and shocked. Ruto's strategy has always been to make the president look bad and step in as the alternative leader. Deep down Ruto is a dangerous power-hungry individual that should not be allowed anywhere near the statehouse, and soon he is going to expose himself and vindicate me. Let's wait and see.