Details have emerged that the bitter relationship between president Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto may have begun much earlier in a fuliza deal gone sour.
Citizen Weekly has reported that contrary to what many think, the differences between the two are not political but economic after the two disagreed on the bank to be picked to roll out Safaricom’s multibillion program several months after the repeat elections.
According to insiders, both president UHuru and deputy Ruto suggested different banks to roll out the Fuliza program which allows Mpesa users to acquire instant loans even if their balance is insufficient.
While William Ruto fronted the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) to roll out the program, President Uhuru and Baringo senator Gideon Moi teamed up to front his family’s National Commercial Bank of Africa (NCBA) that eventually bagged the deal singlehandedly despite an earlier agreement that KCB would also be part and parcel of this program. It is important to note that the Moi family is one of the major shareholders at Safaricom.
Consequently, this raw deal saw William Ruto lose billions of money he would have pocketed as commissions if KCB was to be included in the fuliza program.
Citizen Weekly further reported that William Ruto had been made to believe that he was part of the deal during the 2017 electioneering period. The deal would have seen Safaricom, Kenya Commercial Bank and NCBA Bank introduce the payments interface on M-Pesa which allows customers pre-authorization of transactions for payments to be made later.
The sources further reveal that DP Ruto spared all his energy to campaign for president Uhuru to be re-elected with the hope of bagging the billions of shillings from the deal to use in his 2022 presidential ambitions. Little did he know that he was only being used during the campaigns to be dumped later like a hot potato!
To make the second in command believe the deal, the late Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore announced that KCB and CBA were piloting on the overdraft facility.
So attractive were Collymore’s words that the DP swallowed the bait only for the head of state in collaboration with Baringo senator Gideon Moi to show their true colors by having the fuliza deal rolled out by CBA while giving Ruto’s KCB a wide berth.
Insiders further say that the move annoyed the second in command so much and to make matters worse, president Uhuru in 2018 went for a handshake with Ruto’s political enemy Raila Odinga, further locking him out of the goodies.
This move alone had meant that William Ruto had successfully been denied billions of shillings that he would have added to his 2022 campaign cash.
With the handshake as added by Citizen Weekly, Ruto was completely elbowed out of the fuliza deal and his efforts to have KCB roll out the project were thwarted since he was no longer in the “high table.”
With regards to why the deputy president wanted KCB picked, insiders have revealed to Sonko News that he was controlling the board of directors by then and he was very sure that he would benefit financially.
“It is said, Ruto handlers had opened a bank account in Dubai where commissions from the fuliza deal would be deposited.” Quoted Citizen weekly.
Besides, Ruto is reported to have been very close with KCB CEO Joshua Oigara who acted as his private banker at some point, with insiders disclosing that Oigara had a rough time (he was a marked man) at some point after the exit of pro-Ruto sympathizers at the board of management.
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