I will be back with a bang before end of the year, says Ruto

Former Bomet governor Isaac Ruto during an interview with The Standard. [David Njaaga, Standard]

He is still as courageous and confident as a man in plogom (gumboots) walking on a muddy footpath. 

At 11am on a sunny day when the Sunday Standard caught up with him at the lush compound of his Tumoi village home, former Bomet governor Isaac Ruto exudes exuberance that almost seems indestructible even after his grand political loss seven months ago. 

He still has fire in his belly, and his laughter is still prolonged and breaks into a repeated chuckle with fits that shake his body. But his valour breaks and his voice becomes gruff and throaty when the events of October 18, 2014 come up for discussion.

“How does someone recover from such a loss?” Ruto says, barely audible. As a maverick politician and a man who has walked through a number of tight ropes, the loss of his daughter Emmy Chepng’etich is still the “darkest moment of my life”.

“I wish we knew that she was sick, we only got to know a week before she died,” he says.

Ruto simply describes Chep-cricket, as she was known in the world of cricket where she was captain of the Kenya women’s cricket team, as a chip off the old block. 

“I knew she would take over from me, she coloured our world, the loss shook us, maybe I will one day find strength to move on,” he says.

Chepng’etich, who was working as an electrical engineer with the Geothermal Development Company, died after a short ailment at a Nairobi hospital at the age of 25.

Just before the interview, Ruto has an appointment with two delegations. Towards the end, another delegation that includes Chepalungu MP Gideon Koskei, alias Sonko, who was elected on his Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) ticket, demands that we conclude the interview.

There is an event they want Ruto to accompany them to and they cannot allow him to stay longer.

Deserved rest

“Nothing much has changed significantly, we still host the residents who come home. Once you are a leader, you are always one,” says Ruto.

Perhaps bigger delegations will find their way into his three-gated home 14km off Narok-Bomet road at Kaboson centre before the end of the year when Ruto plans to rejig his political activity after over a one-year lull. “I will end my sabbatical in October after a deserved rest, I want to strengthen my CCM party,” he says. The father of four also intends to have a countrywide push for cohesion, insisting that his generation now in power will take the blame if the country breaks down into tribal regions.

Ruto says although he has certain views that are dear to him, he had decided to keep a low profile for political climate to settle and for the ruffled waters to be still.

“After last year’s General Election, however imperfect it was, I accepted to generally allow Kenyans to settle and move on. But I will remain vigilant lest the gains we made over the years are washed away,” he says. “As Kenyans, we must retain our heads and intellect and the capacity to debate and have robust disagreements without causing any bloodshed or breaking of any law.”

By extension, his predecessor Joyce Laboso will be a beneficiary of his truce.

“I told her to work, I only urge her to complete projects we started, like the 47,000-seater Green Stadium in Bomet that needs not much to be completed. It will be the third largest in Kenya and belongs to the residents,” he says. After his rest, the former governor says among his first missions would be to popularise CCM in preparation to bag at least 10 parliamentary seats and more MCAs in 2022. He says the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga has made his work easier in pushing for cohesion.

“The Uhuru/Raila move was very welcome,” he says, adding that it has brought down the tribal animosity and political temperatures that threatened the co-existence among communities.

As a former principal of the National Super Alliance (NASA), which he believes died two weeks after the August 8, 2017 elections, he lauds Raila for showing statesmanship by agreeing to meet Uhuru halfway the road. “It must have taken bravery and patriotism to arrive at such a decision. Both Raila and Uhuru would not have a legacy for themselves had they allowed the country to go into abysm,” says Ruto.

It is on that platform that the former governor, who is fascinated by Karl Marx’s historical materialism and dialectics, plans to roll out a campaign for inclusivity in government and push for empowering of all communities.

Young enough

“I would want to champion inclusivity in government. That is how to create a stable environment for the country,” he says. The 58-year-old politician said he was still young enough to play politics.

“That is around the age that former President Daniel Moi ascended to the presidency and held on for 24 years. Anyway for me, I would need at least 10 more years in politics,” he says.

He, however, refuses to open up on whether he will still seek to recapture the governor’s seat he lost to Laboso, saying he is equal to any task, including a higher office. He says he is a “dare-devil politician”.

“I sometimes don’t think of the consequences. Not that I am not aware of them but they don’t quite scare me,” says Ruto. His past straightforward approach to politics has seen him sacked as Cabinet minister in Moi’s government and later losing his Chepalungu parliamentary seat.

Last year, he sided with Raila against Uhuru and Ruto who enjoyed a near-fervent support in Rift Valley.

The move to join NASA, which he admits led to his loss of the governor’s seat, was also another of his seemingly political suicidal decisions.

He says though that he has since reconciled with the Deputy President and wishes him well as he serves Kenyans together with Uhuru.

“We have met twice and have also exchanged phone calls a number of times, I have no problem with him, let him and Uhuru deliver, we will give them a score,” he says. His face suddenly brightens, as it always does when he gets an opportunity to discuss devolution. He was chairman for the Council of Governors (COG) for two terms.

“I am worried COG is diminishing, the Senate which should be a defender of counties has turned out to be its enemy and the Treasury is happy because it has no love lost with the devolved units,” Ruto says.

During his tenure as the COG chair, Ruto was in a collision course with the national government over funds allocations to the counties and at one time pushed for a referendum to increase the funding.