Lessons Ruto should learn from the book of Kings

The story of his excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto can be likened to a story in the bible found in 2 Kings. For those who have not heard the story, here it is.

"So it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. 25And there was a great famine in Samaria, and indeed they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a [a]kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.

26 Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!"

27 And he said, "If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?" 28Then, the king said to her, "What is troubling you?"

And she answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' 29So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him,' but she has hidden her son."

30Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman that he tore his clothes, and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body. 31Then he said, "God do so to me and more also if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat remains on him today!"

In the run-up to the 2017 general elections, The deputy president, then party leader of the United Republican Party (URP), decided to disband his party after it coalesces with President Uhuru's The National Alliance Party (TNA) to form Jubilee Alliance Party (JAP).

The agreement between the two party leaders, which was made earlier in the run-up to the 2013 general elections, was that Uhuru, if he clinched the presidency, would go for the constitutional maximum of 10 years and then leave the Mantle to his deputy to go another ten years. Uhuru was/is the other woman who, being cunny enough, suggested that her baby to be eaten last, knowing that, before that time reaches, anything can happen. The famine might come to a sudden stop, therefore, saving the life of her baby.

On the other hand, Ruto was/is the woman who offered her baby (URP) to be eaten first with hopes of getting a chance to survive tomorrow by feeding on the other woman's baby (JAP).

How did Ruto miss seeing this coming even after being warned by his political advisors, former Bomet governor Isaac Ruto, Kericho County governor Paul Chepkwony, Alfred Keter, and Zakayo Cheruiyot? Any right-minded individual would be suspicious of a neighbor who advises you to demolish your house, however small it is, and go join him in his mansion with promises of him one day leaving for you the mansion as your inheritance. A good and well-intentioned neighbor would rather help you build your house even if he harbours thoughts of one day, making you an heir of his own mansion.

Leave alone the political bigwigs like Isaac Ruto; even the youths thought it was utterly unwise for Ruto to disband his own party just because he was promised bigger and better goodies in JAP. In an article published by one of the Dailies on the 4th of September 2015, South Rift youths, led by Benard Koech, Jackline Chepngeno, and Benard Ruto, highly critisized the idea of Ruto disbanding URP. They opined that Ruto should not disband URP even if he has chosen to form a coalition with TNA. That way, URP would still have a life after JAP.

Ruto should have borrowed a leaf from the opposition parties, which also formed a coalition in January 2017 in a bid to face the ruling party (which had already formed a coalition with 14 other political parties) head-on. Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM), Amani National Congress party, and FORD-Kenya teamed up to form The National Super Alliance (NASA) but, unlike in the case of JAP, the individual parties were not disbanded. Right now, NASA is as good as dead, but the individual parties are still alive and kicking.

If the recent reports of Jubilee Party writing to the registrar of political parties to make some changes in the National executive, and that the deputy president was not privy to the changes, are anything to go by, then it seems Uhuru has decided to hide his baby from Ruto when it is time for him to boil his son so that the two can eat together.

Unlike in the bible story, the tragedy in UhuRuto's story is that Ruto has no King to report to. He only has two options. He can coil his tail like a coward and still beg his boss not to forsake him. Cowards live to fight another day. Or he can bring out his guns blazing like a real soldier, get out of JAP and run into the bush, like his neighbor, South Sudan first Vice president Riek Machar, and start a fresh battle, gorilla or otherwise, using a newly formed political vehicle.