Deputy President William Ruto is facing a delicate situation where he has to make tough decisions which may alienate his allies and complicate his 2022 political ambitions.
Ruto is fighting to remain neutral following the outcry over Mau evictions, calls for lifestyle audit on senior government officials and looming changes in Cabinet.
At the same time, the DP must ensure President Uhuru Kenyatta and by extension Jubilee government delivers on its pledges to secure a legacy he can also ride on to win support for his 2022 presidential ambition.
Ruto now tries to juggle the multiple issues well aware that if one or more fall, it would muddy the political match for him.
To sum up the complexity of the issues, the DP yesterday said the future of the Jubilee government is dependent on performance and service delivery.
“I call on my fellow Jubilee leaders to know that we have the responsibility of bettering the lives of Kenyans by making the country food secure, boost universal healthcare, creation of jobs, provision of better housing, among others,” he said during commissioning of several projects in Baringo County, yesterday.
He said Jubilee emerged victorious in the 2013 and 2017 General Election because of fulfillment of promises to Kenyans.
Ruto is also treading on a shaky ground in his bid to grip the Kalenjin support in the face of Mau Forest restoration.
This a hot political potato given that some of the people being evicted from Mau are the Maasai and some come from his backyard and whom he must placate for future support.
To further compound the situation, Ruto’s political rival, ODM leader Raila Odinga has weighed in on the Mau debate after meeting members of Narok County Assembly who have called for the conservation of the water tower.
It remains to be seen if the DP will back down on his resolve on Mau squatters’ evictions to avoid a political backlash, especially in the Maasai land.
Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen, an ally of the DP, has opposed the evictions.
The Senate Majority Leader claimed Raila masterminded the evictions after the March 9 handshake with the President. This a clear indication that the Mau evictions are taking a political dimension.
Forceful evictions
During the forceful evictions last weekend, Baringo Senator Gideon Moi visited the victims and donated foodstuff and other items.
Gideon has declared interest in the presidency and his candidature offers Ruto’s bid a real test. The senator's visit to Mau, observers say, was heavily loaded.
Ruto opposed the eviction of squatters from the Mau in 2009. He accused former Prime Minister Raila of orchestrating the evictions.
The Mau evictions culminated into the anti-Raila campaign in 2013 and cost him Rift Valley votes. The region had voted almost to a man for him in the disputed 2007 elections.
Even as the Mau Forest politics rages, the war on corruption that recently targeted the entire management of Kenya Power is another dicey matter for the DP.
Just after the arrest and arraigning in court of the top management, Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter, a close Ruto ally, said the fight against graft should be carried out in a humane way, alluding to the way Kenya Power Chief Executive Officer Ken Tarus and his predecessor Dr Ben Chumo alongside 16 others were arrested and taken to court.
“We support the war on graft and the ongoing graft investigations and prosecutions should be on solid grounds and not be guided by malice and political vendetta,” said Nandi Senator Kiprotich Cherargei.
Mr Cheragei, also chair of the Senate Justice and Legal Affairs committee, in an interview with the Saturday Standard, termed the war on graft selective and insisted that it must be done in good faith devoid of succession politics.
The Nandi senator’s arguments embody the spirit of resolutions of two successive meetings by Rift Valley MPs in Nairobi that the exercise must be done objectively.
It is Murkomen who first claimed that the lifestyle audit was a farce and lacked the legal framework for its implementation, pouring cold water on President Kenyatta’s directive. Notably, Ruto has not expressly spoken about the lifestyle audit but his allies have claimed that he is the target of the exercise.
“What is lifestyle audit? As said by who? Under what legal framework? To be approved by who? To be done by who?” said Murkomen during a recent interview on a local television station.
