KDRTV-Recent political happenings in our country has proved to all and sundries that the political marriage between URP and TNA or to put it more precisely, between President U.M.K and his deputy W.S.R is dead but the question that remain in the lips of the local Mt Kenya voters is: won’t U.M.K go begging W.S.R for support when Tinga turns on his tractor in the belly of the handshake?
Ejection of the Senate majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen and Senate majority whip Susan kihika albeit in what Ruto Allies calls unprocedural and illegal manner has sent a strong message to the DP that it won’t be business as usual. For the president and his supporters, “the end justifies the means” and this has caught Ruto and his Allies by surprise and proved that the president handlers had been planning the coup all along while his deputy either knew what was being orchestrated and decided to adopt a wait and see attitude as the president fired the first bullet or did not know a damn thing! Which is highly doubtful given the acumen of the man from Sugoi.
Ruto has remained “mute” in the face of the political onslaught against him and it would be ultimate folly to imagine that he is doing “nothing” behind the scenes. Every political player in Kenya knows that Ruto is the ultimate bull’s-eye and a master politician whose political acumen is next to none. It would be worthwhile to note that Ruto has studied and understood the reasoning behind the Mt Kenya voters and understood the myths associated with Mt Kenya that they can’t vote an “outsider”, the truth that they can never betray the one who had defended and stood with them and he has made a deliberate attempt to make inroads in the mountain region with an overwhelming success. He has convinced Mt Kenya voters to a larger extent that he was not party to what happened in kiambaa during the post election violence where children and women who attempted to escape from the burning church were thrown back into the fire and he would not wish such a thing to happen in future and having stood with the president through three elections and being more trustworthy having been bestowed the presidency when the president attended Hague as an individual Kenyan; he has proved he has a sustainable evidence of trustworthiness.
Will Ruto fight the president in person? Very unlikely! Ruto intelligence machinery understand that Mt Kenya views the president as the worst they have ever elected and his popularity in the ground is embarrassing low. He know that the core president supporter’s feel disillusioned by the president’s failure to develop the region mainstay. Coffee and tea has been uprooted, business people have been fleeced with their business collapsing with an alarming rate, increased rates and business policies that seem to prejudice the people from Mt Kenya coupled with what they view as development in the regions that never voted the president. For the avoidance of doubt; kirinyaga road traders celebrated jubilee victory with dances and goats and sheep’s lost their lives in the cerebrations but right now they are claiming “nigutee” (we lost the plot).
A popular musician in the region has even claimed in his songs that “the trees elected an axe because the axe was fastened by a tree and it’s the tree that has cut the trees” he also encourages the voters to “select someone to lead you because the one you elected has been tamed” . The president has not really performed dismally as there are many projects that he had initiated which will make him proud but Matters have been made even harder for him given that his predecessor was a lethal economist whose economic track record apart from the scars of the post election violence was above board, a man who had made the country to be reliant on its revenue base without the uncalled for outside borrowing that characterises the current regime. This is the weapon that Ruto will use against the president without antagonising the president support base.
With his charisma, Ruto will never attack the president directly but will use his ground troop viz politicians loyal to him to spread propagandas that are already in the public domain. It won’t be a wonder to witness phrases like “ the madman has captured the drunkard” “hustlers are under threat from the dynasties” “Kenyans should pray inorder to eliminate evil forces from capturing the country” among others.
Post covid 19 kenya will see Ruto and his lieutenants amplifying their religious nature through religious organizations, churches and all out grassroots campaigns aimed at distancing themselves from the regime shortcomings and undermining the president through the Parliament and portraying the president as the bad guy in their grassroots campaigns.
The president love for the military is well documented; he loves donning military fatigues and this goes without saying that the president is a very brave man who doesn’t fear walking into a storm. His bravely nature is likely to lead him in a snare from his political frenemies and throw him into the path of a more politically dangerous, calculating and a thousand miles “dot mark” chance spotter who will make him swallow every insult made to him, family and political bastion. It’s at that point that the president may be forced to make a hard choice between the “devil you know” and other political players but as it stands now, the battle lines are drawn and we are in for some real battle where only the fit will survive.
By John Mbuthiah – a Concerned Kenyan
