Shrewd Ruto all set for his role as next Opposition leader

Deputy President William Ruto and ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi during a political rally in Bungoma on January 28, 2022. [DPPS]

It is as difficult as it is unwise to deny the devil its dues. Shakespeare understood as much when he penned the Henry IV play and in a conversation between Prince Henry and Poins, the same is accentuated.

Deputy President William Ruto is like Lord Varys in Game of Thrones. The character who having had his neanderthals chopped off, employs wits, unbridled by lust and cannot help placate every ear that cares to listen about his humble beginnings.

In 2019, those who heard Ruto’s speech when he addressed the Chatham House in London could tell this was a man who understood that his chances of succeeding his boss President Uhuru Kenyatta were diminishing.  Here, let me elucidate further- history has furnished us with enough evidence to deduce that Raila’s leftist brand of politics has been his greatest impediment on his path to the presidency. Win him the adoration of voters? Yes. State power? No.

But he needs State power for him to finally effect the promises towards steering the country to a trajectory of prosperity. Raila is no project of the Deep State, he is just a political sage who has enamored himself to the myriad of elements that often conspire to crown the ‘King’ in Kenya- the establishment, built-in-largesse, the corporate world and the International community.

Contrary to the mendacious glib peddled by his detractors, the ODM leader has not strayed from the course.  The ultimate currency of politics is power. Raila needs the Presidency to show Kenyans his abilities and capabilities in action and this overrides opposition politics. Ruto himself is on record banking on State support by claiming he was promised, ‘yangu kumi, ya Ruto kumi.’ Would that have made him a State stooge as well? 

During his address at the Chatham House, he opined that the national government should be tailored to comprise the Executive and the Official Opposition. The Executive should be headed by the President, while the Opposition by the leader of the party or coalition of parties whose presidential candidate wins the second highest votes.

Therein lies a speech of a man at peace with his fate. The Musalia Mudavadi factor is inconsequential. Mudavadi is a bitter man, with a spleen so immersed in bile, he is willing to drown in it. He is more concerned with stopping Raila than being the cure to Jubilee’s putrid mess. In 2007, Raila picked Mudavadi out of political oblivion and hoisted him on the totem pole that has hitherto given him the voice he currently rides on.

The writer is a businessman in Texas, US