Deputy President William Ruto has abandoned his hardline opposition to constitutional changes and is now supporting them.
The Star has established that for months, Ruto’s allies advised him against opposing a strong pro-referendum movement too close to the 2022 general elections.
A post-referendum force would trigger major political realignments, they argued, which would likely pose a major hurdle to his presidential bid should he lose the contest.
Also complicating matters for the DP were fears that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s inner circle is discretely supporting the changes whose public face is Opposition chief Raila Odinga.
Its is widely speculated that Raila will face-off with Ruto in the 2022 presidential duel, which has sent chills to the DP’s camp.
While Ruto is already in frenetic countrywide campaigns to succeed Uhuru, Raila has not publicly declared he will take a fifth stab at the presidency despite hints by his close allies.
“The pro-referendum brigade is growing by the day. You cannot risk to face such a group in a referendum too close to an election. The referendum contest will automatically influence 2022 voting lines,” a source close to Ruto told the Star.
Referendum proponents are scheming to amend the Constitution in mid 2020 or early 2021 to give room for the boundaries review as well as re-constitution of the IEBC.
Last week, former legislators from across the country led by ex-Mbeere South MP Mutava Musyimi strongly backed the clamour for sweeping constitutional reforms.
“There is a question about the structure of government. There is a national question about the size of government and there is a national question about the performance of government,” Mutava said, enumerating the issues that Kenyans are pondering.
In 2005, the “Orange/NO” side led by Raila used the 2005 plebiscite as a springboard to unseat then President Mwai Kibaki.
The Orange symbol used during the plebiscite was turned into a political vehicle – Orange Democratic Movement – with nearly all “NO” luminaries being part of the anti-Kibaki crusade.
Kibaki survived by a whisker but the country was plunged into chaos that resulted in a power sharing deal brokered by international mediators.
Ruto made the about-turn on Saturday in Tharaka Nithi after months of blistering attacks on the law change proponents whom he branded as “lazy and incompetent”.
“Lazy and incompetent people who don’t want to work hard, and incompetent people who can’t formulate programmes, and those who lose elections want to use the Constitution as their bogeyman,” Ruto said in Mombasa in May.
The statement was targeted at his political nemesis, Raila, whom he claims is now plotting to kick him out of Jubilee after the March 9 handshake with Uhuru. Ruto last week said that was an impossible feat.
However, in a surprise about-turn over the weekend, Ruto grudgingly declared he had no problem with the referendum.
“We have no problem with the referendum. Our problem is hypocrisy and conmanship, to tell us the referendum was agreed during the handshake, you are lying to us,” he stated in a veiled response to Raila again.
Even as he climbed down from his hardline stance, Ruto warned that his support was conditional as he would still oppose any agenda to expand the executive by introducing a parliamentary system with an executive Prime Minister.
Read:Don’t support referendum to create more positions – Ruto
There have been some muted suggestions that Uhuru too should not retire but return in 2022 as Prime Minister. Uhuru pooh poohed a similar suggestion by Makadara MP George Aladwa over the weekend to accommodate him in the next constitutional dispensation, reminding him that there is a constitution.
Yesterday, National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale said Ruto beat opposition leader Raila Odinga in his own game by agreeing to a referendum.
“Raila Odinga has always wanted to frame Ruto as anti-people. The DP was aware of this. That is why he said as a politician and a citizen he doesn’t want to be a stumbling block if the issues are beneficial to Kenyans,” said the Garissa Township MP.