Ruto Plays Into Uhuru's Game Plan

In the recent past, we have witnessed a barrage of exchanges between the President and his deputy. In the past week, Kenyans have been treated to some sort of a back n forth between the two, and this has been to most of us very entertaining. Earlier, last week the Deputy President had rubbished his boss and told him off in no uncertain terms that the people of Kenya will never accept "the nonsense of a project from anybody, be it deep state or statehouse". This was seen by many as an act of insubordination to the President by his Deputy. But it did not end there, later that week the Deputy who seemed energized and emboldened by his newfound sense of freedom of speech called out his boss who earlier had termed him as an absentee Deputy who has been out campaigning for 2022 elections all the time. Ruto told the president that there is no way that he will exclude him from the successes of this administration because he sat and contributed to all the cabinet sittings that deliberated on and passed the said projects. He said the success of this regime is in fact, attributed to him. He ended by telling the president to "bring it on", a statement that dared his boss to a fight, albeit political.

Read also: Ruto pleads with Uhuru to spare him the sword he helped him get

This open exchange of bitter words leaves no doubt about the degenerating relationship between the two top leaders of this country. If you had doubts, now I guess you don't anymore. Nevertheless from where I am sitting, I think Ruto is playing into Uhuru's gameplan. Methinks Ruto should have held his horses and restrained from the public exchange that the president has been drawing him to. And for someone of his political astuteness, I expected him to see this, to anticipate it, but I was wrong. The Deputy President had drawn a number of sympathizers to himself by his show of  'humility' and calmness, in the face of a storm in his political career, an act that he had perfected well until recently. To the public, Ruto was seen as the victim, the oppressed, the good Deputy being persecuted by the President's men. But now, the President is slowly disapproving of that notion, and portraying his Deputy as a disrespectful and power-hungry individual who will stop at nothing to get his job. All this with the help of the Deputy President himself. Ruto has made it so easy for this narrative to fall into place that he is not even realizing it. 

The next time you hear the President speak, you will hear him highlighting all of his Deputy's recent outbursts and words. He will be sure to amplify it for everyone to hear and understand. He will then tell the people that you see, all along this is the kind of person I have been dealing with, and this is why I think he is not fit to be President. But this will not be before the Deputy has attacked him further, and believe me, he will. Ruto is now cornered and as a wild cat that he is, his first instinct when cornered is to fight back. And fight he will. Then when he has shouted himself hoarse, the president will unleash his final knockout blow. He will come out and in his usual 'jameni' phrase ask the public the "if you were in my shoes" question. At this point, Ruto will have lost most of his ardent supporters a situation that will infuriate him further leading to more outbursts.

The script is so well choreographed that by the time Ruto realizes it will be too late. In Mombasa, while the President was launching the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) plan, I heard him asking the crowd that had turned up, "jameni, si mnanijua, sina maneno na mtu..." This phrase is calculated and meant to cut the image of a President under attack from his Deputy, it's meant to have them sympathize with their president. And the crowd responded so well well, as expected. It's all part of the script. I would want to believe that Deputy President William Samoei Ruto must be having a team of advisers who should be able to read into this game plan. Either he is not taking their advice or they are just plain incompetent. Either way, the Deputy President is on a downhill slide, he might not have realized it, but he will soon, and when he does, it will be too late.