After being sidelined since 2018, Dr. William Samoei Ruto has tendered for a handshake with his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta.
This follows the floating of a restricted political tender by the leadership of faith organizations after it became apparent that the DP will not let go of the Jubilee Party.
The documents are now being evaluated by the Archbishop Anthony Muheria led committee, consisting of representatives of various organizations.
The gains have been instant. The DP has been allowed to deliver wheelbarrows and cash to Kisii County, hitherto a no go zone.
Is the DP Ruto, Uhuru Kenyatta handshake tenable?
The once lovely duo has had a topsy-turvy political relationship spanning back to 2002.
Ruto, then a youthful cabinet Minister in the collapsing Nyayo cabinet joined a team that backed the Uhuru-Moi project.
Then a soft-spoken Eldoret North MP, Ruto, Internal Minister Julius Ole Sunkuli, Samuel Poghisio, and Justin Muturi were chief strategists in the Uhuru for president campaign.
Ruto, Sunkuli, and David Murathe planned the political fall of then-Vice President George Saitoti, replacing him with Mulembe strongman, Musalia Mudavadi.
Then the Kibaki, Raila, and Kalonzo juggernaut descended on the aging KANU machine and extinguished Uhuru’s March to state House.
Uhuru went on to form a shadow opposition Government in Parliament in 2003. Ruto was one of the ministers.
Post Election Unity pact
The duo remained together until KANU implored. With Nicholas Biwott pieces up the pieces, Ruto embraced ODM and Uhuru “went back home to Jubilee”
They were later reunited at the ICC in the Hague after each was charged with murder, rape, and displacement of the population in the nasty 2007 post-election violence.
The unity pact was not voluntary. It was a special vehicle procured for political survival and a vessel to ferry them to State House. It worked.
The reason was simple. The GEMA and Kalenjin had fought a fierce battle in 2008 over whether Kibaki (supported by Uhuru) and Raila (supported by Ruto) won the election.
Uhuruto galvanized their communities to a protest vote against the ICC. Not even the choices have consequences cliche could stop them.
The end result of the “unity” was the election of Uhuruto to the presidency, making history as the first head of state to be elected while facing murder and rape charges at the Hague.
