THE REMAINING OPTIONS FOR DP RUTO

It’s not a secret Ruto is a cornered man now. He must fight back or be beaten into submission. That’s the nature of life, and especially in politics it’s unavoidable. The King has openly declared war on the Crown Prince and now it’s up for the crown prince to show his mettle.

With the ousting of Kipchumba Murkomen and Susan Kihika from key positions in the senate, Ruto’s power has been greatly checked. If he has a good memory he should remember 14th of February 2010. It is a day Raila Odinga would want to forget for his presidential dream took a dent that day. Lack of fighting when pushed to a corner and a series of subsequent missteps would lead to President Kenyatta assuming the throne.

On February, 14 2010, Raila who was a co-principal in the government sacked William Ruto and Sam Ongeri over corruption scandals. Ruto who’s not a stranger to mega scandals in this country had been accused of 2billion shillings maize fraud. Prime Minister Raila suspended him pending investigations. In a show of power, Kibaki reinstated Ruto and Ongeri citing Raila had no constitutional power to sack a cabinet minister. What had previously been seen as 50-50 government now tilted all the power to Kibaki reducing Raila to a ceremonial prime minister. Emboldened by the lack of fight from Raila, President Kibaki would go ahead and make nominations to key positions in government without consulting the Prime Minister.

If Ruto does not fight this, the same should be expected. After assuming power in 2013, the President and the Deputy appeared to share cabinet appointments and other key appointments with Ruto awarding his loyalists. Almost half of those appointments have been sacked now with the majority leader in the Senate the most prominent casualty to date.

Ruto has two options now: Resign or fight from within. None looks promising to his ambitions.
If he resigns he will be termed as a weakling who could not handle the heat and thus not suitable for such a top job. Resigning will also mean he has no control over his few loyalists remaining in key government positions. They will be orphans and they will either be crushed from the system or change their loyalty.
If he decides to stay put and fight within, he will be accused of sabotaging the President. An accusation he has heard far too many times in the recent past. The president will also continue humiliating him like he did in the ouster of his point men.

For Ruto the goose seems to have been cooked. If you flip a coin, head he loses, tail he doesn’t win.