Corruption is following Deputy President William Ruto everywhere, compelling him always on defensive position.
Dr Ruto this week veered off his own script, going hammer and tongs on Opposition chief Raila Odinga in what promises to shape the political discourse going forward.
His reference to Mr Odinga ‘as the lord of poverty’ and talk of ‘mandazinomics’ in Garissa on Friday rekindled memories of the hotly contested presidential poll in August 2017 that left the country divided.
The newfound approach, whether temporary, presents him with a dilemma that observers reckon may make or break his chances of succeeding President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2022.
Does he go full throttle on Mr Odinga without appearing to criticise the March 9 handshake between President Kenyatta and the Opposition leader?
“Some people told us that if they lose an election they will go and make mandazi. You lost the election, why are you not making mandazi instead of bringing petty politics into serious programmes that we are focusing on?” he wondered.
For a long period now, Dr Ruto had told his lieutenants that he would not take on President Kenyatta in public, saying that doing so would jeopardise his chances of inheriting his central Kenya bastion.
“DP’s behaviour this week did not come as a surprise. This he has been holding back but he eventually reached the boiling point. The officers he is accusing of being used to fight him in the war on graft were duly appointed to office, it leaves him in a precarious position,” Dr Tom Mboya, a don at Maseno University, observed.
While he may not have directly fired a salvo at the Head of State and his allies, saying that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) was being used to settle political scores, he may be guilty of contradicting his boss who at a funeral in Murang’a earlier in the week reiterated his full confidence in the DCI boss George Kinoti and Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji in their ruthless crackdown on graft in high places.
