Nairobi: Kenya's deputy president William Ruto has adopted a new political strategy to project himself as an outsider in government while heaping blame on President Uhuru Kenyatta for every failure in the executive. Ruto has also trained his guns on Uhuru’s handshake partner Raila Odinga, claiming the ODM leader agreed to a ceasefire with the government in order to loot.
For the first time since he and Uhuru formed the government in 2013, Ruto has publicly admitted to corruption in government, saying Covid-19 funds have been squandered. The DP has termed the Covid-19 graft allegations as “grand larceny”.
Ruto denied that money was lost in the NYS scandal and even in the Arror and Kimwarer dams scandals where his close allies were charged. Just last week, he termed the arrest of three senators abuse of the police and the criminal justice system meant to arm-twist elected leaders into surrender.
Insiders say Ruto is running away from any Jubilee baggage that may haunt his 2022 presidential bid, especially after it became clearer that Uhuru will not endorse him for the top job. He would instead claim Raila should take the flak as he was the man who was working with Uhuru.
Ruto has been elbowed from the heart of power and remains at the periphery in the running of government. On Monday, Soy MP Caleb Kositany, the DP's de facto spokesperson on political issues, told the Star that Ruto was happy that finally Kenyans will not blame him for graft.
“In the past the DP has been labelled a thief. It was almost becoming believable that the DP had everything to do with any corruption that happened in government. Now that they kicked him out, they should be ready to take responsibility,” Kositany said. According to Kositany, the DP will continue being bold in the coming days to expose graft in government without fear or favour, saying the handshake was masterminded to abet corruption.
