Ruto is Falling
By D S
‘Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad’ Henry Wadsworth. For the ancient Greeks, hubris was the folly of a leader who through excessive self-confidence challenged the gods. It was always followed by peripeteia (a reversal of fortune) and, ultimately, nemesis (divine retribution).
History is littered with classic examples of military leaders, kings, conquerors and emperors who on attaining, or at the prospect of attaining, the highest attainable success, became haughty and arrogant and impudent. Almost always, what followed was a seismic tragedy that completely floored and vanquished them. They never rose again.
But even with history’s beautiful lessons, William Samoei Arap Ruto seems hard of learning. Through divine providence, the man scaled political ranks to become the second most powerful man in the country with the very real prospect of becoming the most powerful man within a decade from now.
But the former poultry farmer and son of peasant parents soon forgot the virtues that bore him through various adversities in his quest for power. He threw aside the piety that marked his life as an Evangelist. He closed his ears to the pleas of the weak and poor forgetting he recently had his lot among the proletariat. He has been speaking big, pompous and dreadful words against those whose shoe laces he couldn’t untie a decade earlier. The man waxed haughty and arrogant.
But now the first death knell to his political career has been sounded. Everywhere he goes in the country, he is chased like a dirty, bloody scoundrel.
His political clout is shrinking by the day. He faces threats both at home and abroad. His massive fortune, power and status aren’t helping him from the tentacles of political doom clasping at every of his limb and joint.
And, perhaps the greatest indictment and clearest evidence that his time at the king’s table is up is the auspicious courtesy call of Ngina Kenyatta at Daniel Toroitich’s home. To many, that was any casual call, but to a discerning political student, the visit portends spectacular shifts in the political scheme of things.
The Mt. Kenya Mafia are exploring possibilities of a different political partner from the Rift Valley, and Gideon Moi is the most suitable candidate for that: he has royal blood coursing through him, is less tainted by political scandals, and bears a more universal appeal across the political spectrum. That essentially means Gideon Moi might soon upstage William Ruto in Jubilee’s hierarchy. And that will be Ruto’s end.
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