By Onyinkwa O via FB
In football, you subdue and overwhelm opponents completely when you dictate the tempo and rhythm of the game. In chess, they ought to be chasing and guessing all the time. Fighting fires, dodging traps and reacting to your game plan. That is why to the more discerning, recent events on the Kenyan political arena suggest that Ruto is no longer on his back foot. He is on his butt. Done, down and drowned.
He hadn’t reckoned that Raila would pull that handshake move. He was caught flat footed, displaced and off balance. He had foolishly placed all his cards in Uhuru’s hands, and now Raila was milking his desperate situation dry. Consequently, he was forced ~ by default ~ into opposing the handshake that Kenyans had clearly warmed up to! But it soon became untenable to proceed down this ruinous path. And so he made a ‘U turn’ and gave the handshake half hearted support.
Next, Raila unleashed the referendum talk. Ruto foolishly and eagerly bit the bait, coming out guns blazing and blasting anyone that as much as suggested that there is a 20% that needed being looked at. After he had danced himself lame, he looked up at Kenyans and realised that this is what they wanted, and that Raila was only voicing their concerns about the inevitable tweaking of our constitution. Again ~ and without batting an eyelid ~ Ruto made another ‘U turn’ and declared that he now fully supported Raila’s call for a referendum.
And because he is now coming round to the reality of what Raila stated to him not too long ago, that he ~ Ruto ~ would never get anywhere politically in Kenya without Raila’s support, he is now desperately scrambling to reverse the self inflicted isolation that has seen him open more war fronts than he can meaningfully fight in. He realised that you cannot fight the Moi family, the Kenyatta family, the Odinga family, Kitaeleweka group, maize farmers, the Mau Maasai etc and hope to win.
He is a troubled, isolated, cornered, beaten and broken man who is desperate for acceptance back to the fold. His invitation of Uhuru and Raila to his home for lunch must therefore be seen in light of his seeking to create the public perception that he still has a seat on the national high table where decisions such as the handshake and the referendum are made.
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