Deputy president William Ruto and his main competitor in the August 9 general elections Raila Odinga switched positions in a dramatic turn of events.
The famous handshake between president Uhuru Kenyatta and the former Prime Minister is among the major causes of the switch.
For quite some time, the handshake has been seen as the major reason why Ruto fell out with his boss but from the events that have been unfolding including Ruto admitting that he once nearly slapped Uhuru, the cause of their troubles might be more than just the mere handshake. It is safe to say that the reasons for their fallout are better known to them.
DP Ruto is now in the same position that Raila was in about 5 years ago before he set aside his differences and agreed to cooperate with the sitting head of state.
One of the major reasons to support this is that, towards the 2017 elections Jubilee and Ruto preferred that IEBC should use a manual register in the general elections with the second in command giving very concrete reasons why it was the most suitable.
“Our position is that we will use a manual register. It is not easy to manipulate, it is not subject to games and we think there are sufficient safeguards around,” Ruto said.
On the other hand, Raila was totally against the use of the manual register preferring the digital one
“They now want people to go back to manual saying that there are areas that have poor networks, there is nothing like that,” Raila said, adding that there was enough time for Kenyans to confirm if they were registered as voters. According to him, going back to manual register was a plan to rig polls.
Today, Raila is the one advocating for a manual register saying that elections will not proceed without them in polling stations while Ruto insists that there is no need for manual registers since it is just the copy of the digital one.
IEBC has however eventually agreed to avail the manual registers in polling stations.
While the manual register is a recent issue, Ruto has been heard complaining about plans of rigging elections by his opponent. This was Raila’s major concerns in the past such that he even refused to participate in the repeat of presidential elections in October 2017.
Ruto is afraid that elections might be rigged agaisnt him because Raila has the support of the president and majority of his cabinet secretaries including ICT CS Joe Mucheru and Interior CS Fred Matiang’i in what they have referred to as deep state. The cabinet secretaries have openly declared their support for the former prime minister and even accompanied him to campaigns a number of times.
He went ahead to complain in foreign countries, US and Europe, asking them to help him stop the rigging since it was one of the threats to the country’s democracy.
Ruto has been pleading with global communities to intervene, noting that his boss is his competitor in the coming elections.
In 2017, Raila was also in the US and met with members of the congress where he urged them to push for election reforms. Ruto on the other hand accused him of planning to ruin his plans of becoming the head of state in 2022.
“So, Tinga went all the way to the USA to seek support to scuttle the possibility of a son of a peasant from being elected prezo in 2022!Balaa” Ruto said then.
That aside, Ruto fully assumed the opposition responsibilities from Raila saying that together with his team they were no longer playing the oversight role. Nowadays, Raila is no longer referred to as the opposition leader even in the media. Ruto has bashed the head of state a number of times with observers calling upon him to resign because he is not carrying out his duties as required yet he is on a payroll.
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