Deputy President William Ruto has for the first time spoken about the betrayal he suffered in 2007 when opposition leader Raila Odinga ran for the presidency under ODM.
Ruto, Raila, Musalia Mudavadi, Charity Ngilu, Joseph Nyaga and Najib Balala were the Pentagon members under the Orange party.
Speaking yesterday at the homecoming party of Lurambi MP Titus Khamala at Mwangaza Primary School in Kakamega County, Ruto recounted how both Raila and Mudavadi connived to deny him the Prime Minister post, following the formation of a grand coalition government between ODM and Party of National Unity (PNU) led by President Mwai Kibaki.
Raila and his team lost the contested elections that led to clashes that claimed lives and left a trail of destruction. It took the intervention of the international community to return Kenya to normalcy.
Ruto said a power-sharing pact had been reached among the Pentagon members and positions shared if they won the election. Ruto was to take the position of Prime Minister.
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“We had settled on Raila as the automatic President, deputised by Mudavadi and I was to occupy the Prime Minister’s post,” he said. Unfortunately, that was never to be as the Opposition lost virtually everything, save for the PM slot that would be created later.
Sympathise with me
“However, my two big brothers decided to share my post among themselves, leaving me without anything despite our earlier deal,” said Ruto amid cheers and laughter from the crowd.
He said even before the dust could settle, he together with President Uhuru Kenyatta (then Deputy Prime Minister) were bundled to The Hague where “both Railaand Mudavadi never bothered to visit and sympathise with me”.
“It is God’s mercy that I would later be elevated slightly above both after all those tribulations, when I became Deputy President,” he said.
But when he rose to speak, Mudavadi said he has no one’s debt, adding that in any case, the Deputy President should be the one supporting him in 2022 as he (Ruto) and President Kenyatta played him in 2013. “Ruto and Uhuru in 2013 came to my house and they took tea and mandazi as we agreed on the two fronting me, but they later turned tables on me and called me‘mademoni’ (evil)” said Mudavadi.
Mudavadi dismissed Ruto’s assertion, saying there was no such deal among the Pentagon members.
“I don’t have Ruto’s debt and if anything, the debt should have cancelled out when he (Ruto) and Uhuru visited my Nairobi home to pledge their support only to short change me later,” said Mudavadi.
