Tell Uhuru to stop being aggressive towards me, Ruto to US interviewer

Independent US journalist Mvemba Phezo Dizolele (L) during an interview with DP William Ruto on Friday, March 4, 2022. [Courtesy of CSIS]

Deputy President William Ruto’s itinerary of his United States tour this week included interviews with television stations, as well as civil society organisations.

The interviews have seen him open up certain conversations, more so to do with his relationship with President Uhuru Kenyatta.

From matching shirts and ties, to heavy political statements, the two have admitted that indeed things took a different path.

But it is an interview with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in the Washington DC that Ruto lifted the lid on how “aggressive” the president has been towards him.

It is a dark room illumination that provided the setting for the 1-hour-and-3 minutes’ interview recorded on Friday, March 4, hosted by Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, the Director and Senior Fellow, Africa Program at Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Dizolele, who is a writer, foreign policy analyst, and independent journalist, is a native Congolese and a naturalised US citizen.

As the interview came to an end, Mvemba Dizolele asked the DP: “As the Constitution exists today, you have had a tough relationship with your president; you started off as partners… What is the state of the relationship with your president, and how does it relate to your position with the Constitution?”

In response, the deputy president said: “It’s a relationship built over a long time, maybe 20 or 30 years… We shared the same thoughts, up until the handshake came about. When the handshake came about, I did not believe that the way to build and consolidate our democracy is by creating two or three positions for a few leaders, and that was the point of departure.

“I believed that building an inclusive economy would actually sort out the challenge of ethnicity in Kenya; and building national political parties and national coalitions, would actually sort out the challenge of ethnicity in our politics.

“I did not believe that sponsoring every ethnic region to have a political party is the way to go. I do not believe that changing the Constitution to create a few positions would sort out the challenge of ethnicity in Kenya. I have no problem with the creation of positions, but I do not think it is the answer [to solving ethnic division].

“Democracy means that even though I don’t agree with you, I should defend your right to hold a contrary view without necessarily taking any drastic action against you. So, Uhuru Kenyatta is my boss, and my good friend, although we have different points of view on matters to do with how we want to take Kenya forward.”

Mvemba Dizolele, seemingly dissatisfied with the response, took it a notch higher, asking the DP: “We hope that kind of friction, those differences moving forward, that structure of President and DP, will continue, but in the way that is positive. It’s been unsettling to see the DP and his president, one asking the other to resign, while the other saying: ‘no, [I won’t]… This (exchange) is part of that entire ecosystem [that appears not to be working].”

Smiling, DP Ruto, responded: “Maybe if you get an opportunity to have a chat with President Kenyatta, maybe you could ask him to be less aggressive against (sic) me. Maybe that way, we could make this a lot better. But I have taken it in its stride, and we’re moving on.”

Though the deputy president did not expound on the alleged aggression against him, in previous addresses in the US, he had accused the Kenyatta-led government of threatening, blackmailing and intimidating people affiliated to him.

In a subsequent interview with the Voice of America, the deputy president summarised the causes of his dysfunctional relationship with the Head of State as: merging of the opposition with the government, removal of Jubilee leaders from Parliamentary committee seats, the quest to change the Constitution through BBI, and the plan to have Raila Odinga’s presidential bid endorsed by the State.

“There was no problem with the president’s efforts to build bridges with Raila Odinga. But the things we (Uhuru Kenyatta and I) agreed upon, as forming part of the handshake, mutated into something else.

“We didn’t discuss, for example, that it would be an exercise to kill the opposition and to kill oversight. We didn’t discuss that members of the ruling party would be jettisoned so that members of the opposition can occupy committees in Parliament. We didn’t agree, for example, that this [handshake] was an exercise to change the Constitution. And, we didn’t agree that this was an exercise to shape the president’s succession,” he said.

The DP claims that the briefing he received from the president before meeting Raila Odinga was that the government was planning the former prime minister’s retirement package.

“In fact, I had been informed that Raila Odinga wanted to be facilitated to retire,” Ruto said in the VOA interview.

“And I remember asking [the president]: ‘Really? Do you expect… [Raila to proceed on retirement]’? We know him, and we know his games. And, I said that time: ‘I don’t think Raila Odinga is going to retire, I think he is going to talk about [changing] the Constitution’. And every fear that I had, has come to be,” said the deputy president.

In his US media tour, Ruto said he’s willing to accept the August 9 presidential election outcome if he is fairly defeated.

“I will accept the election outcome, a straight yes, with no qualifications. That’s what a democrat is. That’s the question that I want all my other competitors to answer, it should be a straight yes or no,” he said, stating that he has faith in the IEBC, provided that it’s not manipulated by the State.

Upon conclusion of the US tour on Saturday, March 5, DP William Ruto will embark on a similar tour of the UK and Israel for four days.