Ruto’s 2022 presidential ambition faces major obstacles threatening to scuttle his bid, despite his relentless campaigning to succeed Uhuru.
The fast-shifting political dynamics in Kikuyu politics, coupled with the unsettling truce between Uhuru and ODM leader Raila Odinga, pose a grave threat to Ruto’s State House bid.
And then there’s the fact that some of Ruto’s allies are quietly being removed from plum positions, while others re facing corruption charges.
On Wednesday Jubilee vice chairman David Murathe who is Uhuru’s close ally, openly asked Ruto to retire alongside the President in 2022.
His remarks have triggered a political firestorm that has widened the rift within the President’s ruling party.
Ruto is considered he face of the anti-referendum push backed by key opposition figures.
Further complicating the DP’s political matrix, the powerful Kikuyu Council of Elders had in June asked Ruto to be “satisfied with his 10-year tenure as DP” and not to aspire further.
Ruto’s ascendancy to power was hinged on the populous Kikuyu vote and that in his own Kalenjin backyard.
The two communities are seen to have ‘the tyranny of numbers’ that propelled President Kenyatta to power for two terms.According to the IEBC the Kikuyu number about seven million voters, while the Kalenjin are just below five million.
The presidency traditionally has been determined by five populous communities, the Kikuyu, Luhya, Kalenjin, Luo and Kamba.
Raila has already ring-fenced his Luo community and is fighting to retain the Coast region, despite frenetic efforts by Ruto to neutralize his influence and appeal to the region’s sense of historical victim hood.
Ruto also has a herculean task to penetrate Western Kenya where he undertaken numerous charm offensives, given that ANC Leader Musalia Mudavadi is positioning himself as Central Kenya’s alternative. And a pair of steady hands.
Uhuru and Raila have also become bosom friends, prompting fears the two have a secret power pact that excludes Ruto in 2022.
The high-profile visit by Uhuru to Nyanza, including Raila’s Bondo home, set tongues waging about their ‘real’ mission.
Webuye West MP Dan Wanyama, a key Ruto ally in Western Kenya, warned that a section of politicians opposed to the DP’s State House bid were waging what he termed as a “personal smear campaign.”
“Let our politics be issue-based and not personal. Even our so-called competitors have no agenda,” he said.
Admitting that there are deliberate attempts to doom Ruto’s ambitions, Wanyama slammed anti-DP campaigners for strong-arm tactics.
“They are yet to even declare their candidate in 2022. We are aware this is political competition, but our competitors’ approach is is corrosive,” he added.
“The DP is the front runner but the DP has never sat back just because he is the front runner. He is traversing this country because to be President you must reach out to all Kenyans.”