How Ruto has singlehanded dismantled Mt Kenya region politically

When President William Ruto entered into a political pact with the former President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013 as a result of the International Criminal Court (ICC) charges each had their own expectations. Although they were united in fear of being jailed, Uhuru was eyeing the president but his deputy had grand plans for Mt Kenya region.

With the help of his loyalists, Ruto managed to snatch Mt Kenya region from Uhuru’s grip and defeated Raila, Uhuru’s preferred Presidential candidate. [File, Standard]

After ascending to power as Kenya's first deputy president, Ruto became a regular visitor in the Mt Kenya region, presenting himself as Uhuru’s errand boy.

He crisscrossed every corner of the region as a philanthropist, chief guest for church and school fundraisers, and sometimes launching development projects, and to the delight of the locals, he frequently greeted them Mwathani agocwo and Ngai ni mwega, which is loosely translated to mean ‘Praise God, and God is good.”

In 2017, Ruto was put in charge of the Jubilee Party primaries that were later described as shambolic, especially by political bigwigs who lost to Greenhorns, who were Ruto’s allies.

Some of the political supremos who lost to little-known leaders included former Kiambu Governor Wiliam Kabogo, former Kigumo MP Jamlic Kamau, former presidential candidate Peter Kenneth, who was aspiring for the Nairobi governorship seat, and former Naivasha MP John Mututho, among others.

The veterans claimed that the exercise was marred with serious anomalies, including shortage of ballot papers, lack of transportation and allegations of sabotage. They wondered how Uhuru’s allies lost in the party primaries while Ruto’s allies carried the day.

Led by the Jubilee’s vice chairperson and Uhuru’s ally David Murathe, the leaders claimed it was Ruto who orchestrated the defeat of some of the major political bigwigs in the Mt Kenya region.

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With the benefit of hindsight, some now see this as Ruto's first stage of cultivating loyalists who later abandoned Uhuru after the March 2018 handshake between him (Uhuru) and opposition chief Raila Odinga.

Murathe claimed Ruto manipulated the process so as to plant his allies in the Mt. Kenya region as well as his Rift Valley backyard by first causing commotion to manipulate the exercise in the repeat election.

It started with the Jubilee Party nomination. They started creating commotion on the first day in parts of the country, and we decided to recall it. So the first day nominations flopped,” Murathe said.

He added, “When we repeated the second nominations, all hell broke loose because some interested parties rigged out highly popular people, in some of our own areas in Mt Kenya and Rift Valley and planted the people they wanted.”

Out of the party primaries, Ruto got his loyalists who later led a breakaway from the main Jubilee party, which broke into Kieleweke and Tanga Tanga factions that clashed as they fought for Uhuru and Ruto in the Mt Kenya region.

With the help of his loyalists, Ruto managed to snatch Mt Kenya region from Uhuru’s grip and defeated Raila, Uhuru’s preferred Presidential candidate.

It was at that time that Ruto installed himself as the de facto Mt Kenya kingpin saying he had the map and the coordinates of the region.

Ruto’s excursion in Mt Kenya region continued even after he was elected president; he toured every corner of the region for thanksgiving ceremonies where he hailed the people for their support.

"Mt Kenya region, you broke barriers of ethnicity by voting for us in the general elections. The elections broke the cycle of ethnicity witnessed in the previous elections. "I want to say in a very special way, the people of Mt Kenya did something unexpected and unimaginable. That we have put our nation on a new path," Ruto said on August 6 last year at Sagana State Lodge during a thanksgiving service.

Immediately after his regional tours, factions started forming. One side supported the Deputy President while the other started pushing for his replacement in 2027 fronting Kiharu Mp Ndindi Nyoro as Gachagua’s replacement.

During the infighting, there was a risk of dividing the region along the county lines as leaders from Murang'a claimed to have been taken for a ride by their Nyeri and Kiambu counterparts. The Gen Z protests that rocked the country between June and July swallowed the infighting.

But after the country stabilized, the antagonists regrouped and started beating the drums of war, this time round, introducing Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki as the region’s go-to person whenever the leaders want to see or lobby for developments.

While social and political groups have been supporting Kindiki as the region’s spokesperson, an impeachment motion against Gachagua has been brought forward in a move that has continued to divide Mt Kenya region.

A section of leaders has always been Ruto’s strategy to divide and rule Mt Kenya region due to its voting bloc even as they noted that while the factions fought, all have inclined to him.

According to Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni, Ruto was to blame for the dissolution of key political parties in Mt Kenya region in 2017 as he sought for absolute political control of the region.

“He approached me sometime in 2017 to dissolve the PNU party but I referred him to the third President the late Mwai Kibaki, he then approached former Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungu and that is how his Alliance Party of Kenya (APK) or the bus party died.

"Ruto has been on a mission to annihilate the region’s leadership so that no one can bring us to order, that is what he did with Uhuru and now to Gachagua,” he said.

He added, “The current crop of leaders are just his choir group that he has been assembling since 2013 and that is why they do not question him.’