Deputy President William Ruto has adopted a new political strategy to project himself as an outsider in government while heaping blame on President Uhuru Kenyatta for every failure in the Executive.
Ruto has also trained his guns on Uhuru’s handshake partner Raila Odinga, claiming the ODM leader agreed to a ceasefire with the government in order to loot.
For the first time since he and Uhuru formed the government in 2013, Ruto has publicly admitted to corruption in government, saying Covid-19 funds have been squandered.
The DP has termed the Covid-19 graft allegations as “grand larceny”.
Ruto denied that money was lost in the NYS scandal and even in the Arror and Kimwarer dams scandals where his close allies were charged.
Just last week, he termed the arrest of three senators abuse of the police and the criminal justice system meant to arm-twist elected leaders into surrender.
Ruto is part of the Executive and the country’s second-in-command.
Insiders say Ruto is running away from any Jubilee baggage that may haunt his 2022 presidential bid, especially after it became clearer that Uhuru will not endorse him for the top job.
He would instead claim Raila should take the flak as he was the man who was working with Uhuru.
Ruto has been elbowed from the heart of power and remains at the periphery in the running of government.
“At least for once it won’t be possible to be blamed for what someone said “started in Wuhan as a virus, landed in Italy as a pandemic and now in Kenya as a multi-billion-shilling corruption enterprise”. Let me continue as a spectator. It’s ok,” he tweeted last week
On Monday, Soy MP Caleb Kositany, the DP’s de facto spokesperson on political issues, told the Star that Ruto was happy that finally Kenyans will not blame him for graft.
“In the past the DP has been labelled a thief. It was almost becoming believable that the DP had everything to do with any corruption that happened in government. Now that they kicked him out, they should be ready to take responsibility,” Kositany said.
According to Kositany, the DP will continue being bold in the coming days to expose graft in government without fear or favour, saying the handshake was masterminded to abet corruption.
“The handshake was about deal-cutting. It had nothing to do with the interests of Kenyans. They have been telling lies to attack the DP but the truth has now come out that they are the lords of corruption,” he said.
Political analyst Javas Bigambo said the DP’s latest outbursts are meant to send signals that he is not interested in Uhuru’s endorsement in 2022.
“Ruto is emboldened to chart his own political path. He is determined to move on with his politics and wants to use every opportunity to prove all graft claims against him have always been stage-managed,” Bigambo said.
He said now that Ruto is outside government, he is making it clear that despite his exit the President’s administration continues to abet corruption at all levels.
“He is chiding the President on matters corruption. He is saying that even with the handshake, corruption is unabated,” he said.
But Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu took on the DP, accusing him of enjoying the full benefits entitled to him as the country’s second-in-command while at the same time attacking the President.
Ngunjiri claimed that the DP’s latest onslaught against the Executive is out of panic knowing that he had fallen out of favour in the President’s succession matrix.
“Ruto, as a presidential candidate, is facing major headwinds. He wants the government to support him as the 2022 presidential candidate. They have refused. That is why he is throwing tantrums,” Ngunjiri said.
ODM national treasurer Timothy Bosire said the DP’s efforts to project himself as ‘Mr Clean’ will not be bought by Kenyans.
“Some thieves are very clever, brave, courageous and opportunistic. They will take advantage of any little space available to look clean. Time will vindicate those who are actually determined to fight corruption,” the ex-Kitutu Masaba MP said.
Bosire, however, said the reports on misappropriation of coronavirus funds must be probed thoroughly and those found culpable brought to book.
National Assembly Minority Leader and ODM chairman John Mbadi asked Ruto to stop what he termed as pretence, saying the DP was yet to come clean on mega corruption allegations.
Mbadi warned that Ruto is now out to malign the President’s name by portraying the government as corrupt.
“No one can take Ruto seriously when it comes to matters fighting corruption. He is just trying to make the President’s government look bad by trying to exclude himself from it,” Mbadi said.
On Sunday, the DP launched what was seen as one of the most audacious attacks after he accused Raila of defending mega corruption in the Executive.
“[That] the pretentious (former) Opposition, now turned Lords of corruption, attempted defence of the Covid-19 grand larceny is not shocking. It confirms the worst of Kenyans’ fears that their side of the handshake was never interested in the people’s good but opportunity to loot. What a shame,” Ruto posted on Twitter.
However, on Monday Raila maintained that ODM will never tolerate corruption in all its manifestations, no matter who is involved, adding that systematic audit was the best way to bring culprits to book.
Raila said ODM has always advocated this systematic approach to fighting corruption like it did in the Grand Coalition Government where the party successfully pushed for audit of the sale of Grand Regency Hotel and attendant consequences.
“The position of the party in the current allegations of corruption in Covid-19 related resources is that the government needs to conduct a thorough and urgent audit of all the funds that have been put at the disposal of various state agencies, departments and ministries to fight the pandemic with a view to establishing the facts on usage of such resources,” Raila said.