On July 29, 2017, at the height of General Election campaigns, a gunman forced his way to Deputy President William Ruto’s rural home in Sugoi, Uasin Gishu, murdered a GSU officer, injured another and kept responders at bay for hours.
Four years later, and at the height of a tiff with the government over the redeployment of an elite GSU squad from the DP’s homes in Nairobi and Uasin Gishu and their replacement with Administration Police (AP), the DP’s aides say they are still in the dark on the changes that shocked the nation.
“To date, no report has been given to the Deputy President about the incident,” the DP’s chief of staff Ken Osinde said in a letter to Inspector-General Hillary Mutyambai on Thursday.
With one year to the 2022 General Election, the DP is now a cornered man in a government he helped craft, with his junior officials refusing to act on his requests and even openly questioning his authority and policies.
In what seemed like a coordinated attack last week, Interior and ICT Cabinet secretaries Fred Matiang’i and Joe Mucheru, respectively, rubbished the DP’s bottom-up economic discussion, describing it as a plot to hoodwink the youth.
In the first term of the Jubilee administration, the DP’s words were a command and even junior officials took orders from him pertaining to various government programmes being rolled out in various parts of the country.
But today, for a man that the Constitution insulates from being sacked by his boss, things have changed and all indications are that he no longer wields those powers and his juniors do not engage him on various matters.
Downgraded security detail
If the latest developments where his security detail was downgraded are anything to go by, it is clear that the country’s second in command is a trapped man in his own government.
“For the last three years you have refused to engage the Deputy President on any of the matters touching on his security, or at all,” Dr Ruto said through Mr Osinde, highlighting just how far back the isolation goes for the DP.
On Sunday, the DP downplayed the significance of the tiff even as his allies plan to take the matter to Parliament.
“I have no problem with the AP being sent to guard my homes. If the GSU have a job elsewhere so that Kenyans can be safe elsewhere, let them go and do it. They can even bring in the G4S (private security company). There is no problem,” the DP said in Bahati, Nakuru on Sunday.
Deputy President William Ruto walks with his new security team at his Karen residence on August 30, 2021.
“Let us not try and divide our security forces. Let’s stop the petty politics of who is senior, who is junior, and whatnot. Those do not help Kenyans. Our priorities should be elsewhere, ensuring that Kenyans have jobs and income.”
On Sunday, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said he will push for the summoning of Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, Mr Mutyambai and GSU Commandant Douglas Kanja to explain why DP’s security was downgraded.
“On Monday (today) I will be submitting my letter to the Speaker of the Senate to convene a special session and summon CS Matiang’i, Mr Mutyambai, the GSU commandant, the head of presidential escort and head of public service to appear before the Senate and tell Kenyans why the security detail of DP Ruto was changed,” he said.
An officer from GSU G Company opens the gate of DP Ruto’s official residence in Karen on August 26, 2021. The GSU officers are being replaced by those from AP Security of Government Buildings Unit.
But for the DP, last week’s change of guard and the removal of the GSU confirmed a pattern his office said started long ago.
In January last year, the DP was locked out of his official residence in Mombasa, while he says the events of September and November last year where chaos erupted in Kisii town and at the Kenol AIPCA church in Murang’a, respectively, had not been investigated.
“On numerous occasions, persons well known to you have publicly stated that the Deputy President will not be there in 2022. You have refused to act upon reports made to you on the implications of such remarks for the security, safety and well-being of the Deputy President,” Dr Ruto asked through Mr Osinde.
The State last week downgraded the DP’s security by withdrawing elite GSU officers guarding his residences.
As a category one VVIP, the Deputy President is entitled to security from the same elite guards as his boss.
Officers from AP SGB inside DP William Ruto’s official residence in Karen on August 26, 2021.
Both of them are supposed to be guarded by the G Company and the Recce Company, which are elite platoons from the GSU whose members are carefully selected to form the Presidential Security Unit.
This came just days after President Kenyatta said the DP, with whom he fell out following the March 2018 Handshake with opposition chief Raila Odinga, was insincere about his criticism against his government, which he described as a case of “wanting to have your cake and eat it”.
“If you are not happy, step aside and allow those who want to move on to do so, then take your agenda to the people. That is what happens in a democracy. You cannot ride on what we have done and talk a different language on the side,” President Kenyatta said in an interview.
An Officer from GSU G Company opens the gate of DP’s private residence in Karen on August 26, 2021.
Mr Odinga told the DP to quit instead of occupying the office without helping his boss to accomplish their campaign pledges, noting that it was unprincipled for Dr Ruto to continue using State resources to push for his personal agenda.
“If you are a person with principles, just say that things are not okay and you are not going to tolerate this. I am resigning. You cannot have your cake and eat it,” he said on Friday in a wide-ranging interview with radio and television stations in Mt Kenya.
Dr Ruto, an outsider in his own government, has increasingly become aggressive in his tackles as he pushes back the State siege after years of playing safe as he focuses on succeeding his boss.
Dr Ruto said that despite the humiliation he has faced at the hands of State machinery and Mr Kenyatta’s allies, he would not retreat since he is a “man on a mission” to save ordinary citizens.
On Saturday, the DP, who looked unbowed, said he is not bothered by the schemes choreographed by individuals after pulling him down on his State House journey.
“Those focused on political positions, power sharing and now the GSU/AP saga, sorry, I am unavailable. I am focused on the revolutionary bottom-up economic dispensation that is focused on jobless millions of youth, empowerment for enterprises and support for farmers, herders and fisher-folk,” Dr Ruto tweeted.
Dr Ruto has been on record pointing accusing fingers at his juniors who are hell-bent on clipping his presidential quest while intimating that his boss has remained tight-lipped.
“From the problems I have undergone and being despised among other things, I will not allow my deputy to be mistreated, belittled and all that I have gone through as Deputy President, it is not right or fair,” he said recently in an interview with Inooro FM.
Isolated in government and staring at what would be an anti-establishment stab at the top seat in 2022, the DP implied that the advisers the Head of State decided to listen to recently had turned the priorities of the Jubilee administration upside down.
“If the President decides to elevate other people, consult more with the former leader of the opposition, I have taken it with grace. The style changed and it is the prerogative of the President being the boss,” he added.
With a mixture of bravado, internal coups and the 2018 Handshake between President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga, the DP has been put to his defence, constantly being backed into a corner.
The axing of majority leaders Kipchumba Murkomen (Senate) and Aden Duale (National Assembly), majority whips Susan Kihika (Senate) and Benjamin Washiali (National Assembly), Jubilee deputy secretary-general Caleb Kositany and various parliamentary committee chairpersons allied to him had raised doubts about the DP’s influence.
The DP has also been cornered in the ruling Jubilee Party, forcing him to look for an alternative party – United Democratic Alliance (UDA) – to use in his presidential quest.
Though the DP’s responsibilities were taken over by his juniors, Mr Duale says he is in office as stipulated in the Constitution and not in anyone’s favour.
“The Deputy President is still in office and it follows that the benefits and privileges accruing to the office cannot be taken away by anyone. What the Constitution gives can only be taken away by the Constitution,” said Mr Duale.
The DP’s woes continue to escalate and his allies continue to blame the Handshake, and it reached a peak recently when he was barred from travelling to Uganda on a private mission.
He was also pushed to the periphery in his own government after the Head of State, through Executive Order Number 1 of 2019, appointed Cs Matiang’i as the chairperson of the National Development Implementation and Communication Cabinet Committee (NDICCC).
According to Senator Murkomen, the DP has been stripped of all State responsibilities.
He said key responsibilities had been taken away from him and that he was being told to “stay at home”.
“That the DP is facing an onslaught from junior officers leaves many questions unanswered as to the role of the President in the suffering and persecution his deputy is going through,” Senator Murkomen said recently.
“In as much as the DP plays second fiddle and has always admitted that he is ready to do so, respect is Paramount and must be extended both ways,” added Belgut MP Nelson Koech.
This comes even as President Kenyatta’s camp dismissed Dr Ruto’s claim that he had been elbowed out of the Jubilee government by those coalescing around the Head of State arguing that he (Ruto) resorted to isolation to focus on his 2022 presidential game plan.
Yesterday, the President’s men said the DP should blame himself for the woes facing him in the government after going against the Head of State’s advice not to engage in early 2022 campaigns.
“It is his own team that has been accusing the President throughout. They have been sabotaging the government’s efforts to fight corruption from the beginning and if not sabotaging, they have been perpetuating corruption in government. They have been at loggerheads with the investigating agencies,” said Jubilee deputy secretary-general and Cherang’any MP Joshua Kutuny.
Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu said the DP is being fought in the Cabinet for being what he termed ‘unprincipled’.
“Ruto is the one out there leading the attack on the government – that he sits in – while still continuing to enjoy the benefits and perks that come with his position,” said Mr Wambugu.
“It is really very cowardly of him actually. But anyway, what do we expect from someone who thinks they can have their cake, and eat it too. I think the Cabinet has given up on the DP.” BY DAILY NATION