2022 looks like tomorrow to Deputy President William Ruto, who appears to be getting jittery over the new relationship between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition chiefs.
Details of discomfort emerged as his political nemesis, Baringo senator Gideon Moi, began flexing his political muscle outside his Rift Valley backyard in what could complicate Ruto’s poll matrix.
Gideon, scion of Kenya’s second President Daniel Moi, was in Western Kenya for a two-day foray hosted by Nasa leaders, including ANC boss Musalia Mudavadi.
Coming only weeks after Uhuru publicly declared that his choice of a successor would be a shocker, Ruto in a bare-knuckle attack, accused unnamed opposition figures of undermining his role in government. Is he already shocked?
Previously, Ruto’s allies claimed that the graft purge in government and the lifestyle audit is targeted at the DP and his allies.
“The person who took an oath to help the President as his principal assistant is I William Ruto. When Jubilee programmes or the President’s work goes wrong or stalls, the person to be taken to task is me,” Ruto said on Saturday.
ODM chief Raila Odinga has become so close to the President and at one point confessed that he had Uhuru on speed dial. On the other hand, Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka during the burial of his father in Mwingi last month declared himself the President’s “errand boy” and pledged he would be inseparable from the head f state henceforth.
But in a possible strategy to rebuff Kalonzo, Ruto also insisted that he was the President’s “errand boy” with a constitutional mandate.
On Saturday in Tharaka Nithi, Ruto audaciously said he will “crush” anyone who stands in his way.
Yesterday, a section of his allies downplayed claims that the DP was panicking.
“Ruto’s camp is now more strong and hopeful than before. It’s Raila’s people who have panicked instead. We know the President will keep his word [to support Ruto in 2022] because he is an honest man,” Majority Whip Benjamin Washiali said.
The assault on Ruto by three Rift Valley politicians over the maize scandal is seen as part an elaborate strategy to cut the DP down to size in his own bastion.
The MPs Joshua Kutuny, Silas Tiren and Alfred Keter have all denied that the assault against the DP is sponsored.
The Ruto wing of the Jubilee Party has always been suspicious of the March 9 unity handshake that led to Raila and Kalonzo becoming cozy with President Kenyatta.
Among the fruits of the truce are the appointments of Raila as the African Union Special Envoy on Infrastructure Development and Kalonzo as Special Peace Ambassador for South Sudan.
On Friday, Ruto’s lieutenants opened fire on Raila, accusing him of perpetuating a culture of betraying his supporters.
Do you think DP Ruto’s camp is panicked ahead of 2022?