Will Ruto survive? – Weekly Citizen

Those who have been keenly watching William Ruto’s body language will have noticed that he has of late become panicky and easily irritated to a point of almost breaking down in tears.

Weekly Citizen has established that anti-Ruto forces are working behind the scenes to change the constitution to have the president have powers to sack his deputy. The change constitution movers are borrowing the same script during the Jomo Kenyatta succession when a plot to block then vice-president Daniel arap Moi was hatched. In fact others in the current push want the deputy to act for 90 days if the presidency falls vacant, and elections are held. The constitution states the deputy will complete the remainder of the term.

Those after the 90 days push argue that it will stop the deputy working to have the president impeached and inherit the position to remain in power. It is even argued with the current constitution, the sitting president can easily be assassinated by a power hungry deputy.

The idea is to have the presidency have one centre of power unlike now where two centres of power exist in the legislature.

Within Jubilee, we have MPs allied to Uhuru Kenyatta and others to Ruto. Ruto enjoys power from the constitution which does not allow the president to sack him. Ruto has been accused by his foes of undermining Uhuru of having no respect for him.

Infact, Weekly Citizen has information that the recent events surrounding Ruto humiliation are well tailored to isolate him in the corridors of power and have Uhuru State House be the centre of power. It is on these grounds that the second in command was not consulted during the recent cabinet reshuffle. Ruto was also denied to fly to Sudan using a military aeroplane on the day Uhuru announced his cabinet reshuffle. Ruto was forced to use a private plane to Sudan.

Briefs Weekly Citizen has is that Ruto is set to be kept on his toes until he throws in the towel and forced to resign. The idea is to make him irrelevant by 2022 as new alliances are built up using BBI. The anti-Ruto activities are well coordinated and have a command post that enjoys state security and intelligence briefs.

One of the briefs is to the effect that Ruto fortunes have dwindled and cannot counter by financing MPs allied to him to hold parallel anti-BBI rallies across the country. It was decided, the state funds the current BBI rallies, a move that has seen proRuto camp join the rallies as it happened in Mombasa where his supporters led by Senator Kipchumba Murkomen and Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa were present.

One brief Weekly Citizen has is that it was expected if Ruto had the resources, he ought to have organised another rally in Gusiiland and kept his team in Mombasa all in the name of countering the first BBI rally. He could then move to Kakamega in that strategy.

In fact, sources say that Ruto key financial mobiliser David Muge is on the radar of FBI and CIA after Kenya state security agencies wrote to get information on his links in America, Britain and his international business connections.

The once ever smiling Ruto is now cutting the figure of a forlorn individual who even forgets to shave his beards and hair. Sources close to him say that the DP of late is not himself even with panic gripping his camp as it is emerging that powerful individuals including Uhuru Kenyatta are out to tame his presidential ambitions.

Wetangula

In fact what is said to have shocked the DP was when he recently learned just like any ordinary Kenyan that the president had worked on a cabinet reshuffle that mostly targeted ministers linked to him.

Ruto had expected Uhuru to move powerful Internal minister Fred Matiang’i from the docket and replace him with a neutral person. To complicate issues, Rift Valley was expected to get back powerful Finance slot after the sacking of Henry Rotich.

Ruto’s pain has been aggravated by the realisation that his opponents are using the BBI to dismantle the political network he has established since 2013 across the country.

There are also plans to revive his case at the International Criminal Court. According to sources, Ruto fears that former presidential adviser Nancy Gitau is mobilising witnesses to testify against him once the ICC revives the case.

During the hearing of the case before it was terminated for lack of sufficient evidence, Gitau’s name cropped up as one of those who had coached witnesses to implicate the deputy president in the 2007/08 post election mayhem.

Mudavadi

Ruto’s main financial pillars are also deserting him for fear of state persecution, the latest being Nyeri governor Mutahi Kahiga who abandoned him for the Uhuru-Raila axis.

Parastatal bosses the deputy president used to call whenever he needed resources are no longer picking his calls and those who do tell him that they are not ready to go to jail for his sake.

They are reminding him that he did nothing to protect Kenya Pipeline Company and Kenya Power bosses, who are now facing graft charges after they gave him millions of shillings during the campaigns.

The deputy president who had the support of nearly two thirds of the elected governors is now on his own. Nearly all the county chiefs are looking for excuses to skip his functions for they know that attendance means a date with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. The same applied to MPs, MCAs and senators.

But what is disturbing the deputy president is the realisation that the president and Raila Odinga have hatched a plot to use looming constitutional changes to kick him out of the presidency contest.

To complicate matters for the second in command, Raila and Uhuru plan to marshal over 270 MPs to pass the constitutional amendments, a move that has alarmed the deputy president.

Already, the two leaders have wooed over 200 MPs and by the time the amendments are tabled in the house, they will have wooed over 270 MPs to hit the two third constitutional requirement. A list of MPs targeted in the scheme has been compiled and seen by Weekly Citizen.

In the elaborate plan, Ruto will be sacked to pave way for Uhuru to form a government of national unity once the referendum is successful.

The new government will include Raila and regional kingpins who will lead the presidential campaigns in their strongholds in 2022, at the expense of Ruto.

This is the reason Uhuru and Raila are rallying Kenyans to back constitutional amendments to be tabled by the BBI where MPs will give the president a leeway to initiate the removal of his deputy. They want positions of president, deputy president, prime minister with two deputies created. In the scheme is to have president sack his deputy.

Currently, the deputy president can only be removed from office through a rigorous procedure supported by a majority of MPs and only on the basis of physical or mental incapacity to perform the functions of the office or on impeachment for gross violation of the constitution or committing a serious crime.

Already, MPs Ben Momanyi (Borabu, Wiper) and Ayub Savula (Lugari, ANC) let the cat out of the bag when they disclosed the proposal to amend the constitution to give the president power to sack his deputy was being canvassed.

In the elaborate plan, the government though chiefs and their assistants will collect a million signatures to fasttrack the popular initiative with plans to have a referendum by July this year.

After verification of signatures by the electoral commission, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission will submit the draft Bill to county assemblies and if it garners the support of at least 24 counties, it is presented to parliament and then to a referendum.

Already, the Uhuru and Raila axis has released a schedule of BBI consultative meetings after the Kisii and Bukhungu events.

Last Saturday, their brigade was in Mombasa and are scheduled to go to Embu/Meru on February 2, Wote in Ukambani (February 7), Garissa (February 9) Eldoret (February 16), Suswa (February 17), Kiambu (February 25) and Nairobi (February 26).

Part of the plan involves marshalling over 270 MPs to back the constitutional amendments, and going by the happenings, it seems the plot will succeed.

According to sources, the Uhuru-Raila axis plans to push Ruto to the corner to force him oppose the BBI.

The plan is to have the deputy president use his personal resources to finance the anti-BBI campaigns, with the hope he will burn his fingers by not having adequate resources to fight for the presidency in 2022.

The plan will see Uhuru and Raila use the state resources to counter the anti-BBI campaigns.

Already, the Interior ministry under Fred Matianag’i and principal secretary Karanja Kibicho have started funding pro-BBI meetings, starting with Kisii, Kakamega and Mombasa last Saturday.

Gideon Moi

The second strategy is to revive Ruto’s cases such as the theft at the Kenya Pipeline Corporation. Last week, the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti declared that no one who has stolen public funds will be spared.

The third strategy is to intimidate Ruto’s key backers to ensure most elected leaders, including governors, troop to the government side.

Some of Ruto’s backers who have tested the state’s wrath include MPs Moses Kuria (Gatundu South) and Alice Wahome (Kandara).

Kuria is staring at jail after the government approved his prosecution for misusing National Government Constituency Development Fund kitty while Wahome is on the spot for allegedly stealing money belonging to the late Mbiyu Koinange family.

Nairobi governor Mike Sonko and his Kiambu counterpart Ferdinand Waititu, who had expressed support for Ruto, are also fighting graft cases in courts.

Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri and his Kiharu counterpart Ndindi Nyoro are also on the state’s radar. Last week, Kimani was ordered to surrender his firearms while Nyoro was arrested a month ago for assault.

It is the same case with Ruto’s pointman at the Coast, Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa who is battling a murder case she believes was engineered by the government to intimidate her for supporting Ruto.

Last week, goons disrupted a meeting by four MPs Jumwa, Mohammed Ali (Nyali), Athman Shariff (Lamu East) and Kilifi women representative Gertrude Mbeyu.

Kalonzo

Tens of youth armed with stones and clubs blocked the legislators from accessing a hotel they were to address the press, forcing them to retract.

The Nakuru Town MP, David Gikaria is equally sailing in the same boat after he was accused of allowing construction of illegal kiosks on a disputed land along Kipkelion road in Nakuru.

It is said that the MP funded the construction of the kiosks on the said land without the approval of the Nakuru county government.

According to highly placed sources, Central Bank is also probing Ruto’s accounts to establish whether he has been engaging in money laundering. It is feared most of Ruto’s accounts will be frozen which will deny him resources to crisscross the country opposing the BBI.