Photo: Political strategist Prof Mutahi Ngunyi, an old political hand that does not shy away from telling the president the truth.
Asked why Deputy President William Ruto easily fell out with his boss President Uhuru Kenyatta despite what seemed as a strong brotherly bond, a top political strategist associated with Raila Odinga quickly answered; It is simple, Ruto is surrounded by politically immature Kalenjin boys whose only experience is being born again Christians and blind loyalty, period!. They are light weights, they cannot match Uhuru’s experienced handlers like David Murathe, Stanely Murage, Nancy Gitau, Njee Muturi, George Muhoho and Kinuthia Mbugua.
Indeed a critical look at Ruto’s close confidants confirms they are just regular noise makers with zero command of State craft, only former Energy CS Davis Chirchir is experienced but mainly on electoral matters and not the much needed deep state behind the scenes wheel dealing.
Important political decision are made informally and later presented to the technocrats to validate and operationalize. Most of Uhuru’s close handlers meet over a good bottle of Whisky mainly in the evening at a quiet place like Muthaiga, Westlands, Kitsuru, Karen and even in Kiambu while Ruto’s handlers often converge at Ruto’s private residence where they eat enjoy murzik and later throng to Chapel/Shrine where they sing church hymns and praise songs . While demolishing a 40 years old classy Irish Whisky, a good cold beer and Cuban cigar, Uhuru and his handlers brainstorm emerging important governance matters in a very informal way and once agreed they call respective State officers including cabinet secretaries and even independent bodies like DPP, IPOA, NIS etc to execute within a given timeline. You see, just like that Ruto misses out on important decisions some of which touching on his person or close confidants.
Had Ruto retained the likes of Governor Rutto, Frankline Bett, Sally Kosgey, Zachayo Cheruiyot etc etc things would be different, these old niggas understand power and power games, they will be in those evening meetings enjoying Whisky with Murathe, Njee Muturi, Muhoho Kenyatta and other Mt Kenya wheel dealers, brainstorm and exchange notes on emerging issues thus representing Ruto in critical informal decision making. In reality, Ruto is a one man think tank, his advisors are useless, they are there just to massage his ego otherwise they could have stopped him from self destruction. For example if his head of communication was bold enough, he could have stopped him from tweeting shit, his tweets the last two months have really drained his brand.
Ruto main advisors are;
1. Kipchumba Murkomen, we all know him, the less is said about him the better, lets just save you bundles.
2. Augustine Cheruiyot an Agriculture economist who used to work for a very small NGO – Heifer International were he was a mere country program manager and later served as CECM in Bomet County under Governor Rutto, in fact he was allegedly sacked due to incompetence but warmed his way to DP’s inner circle mainly because his wife is in Mama Rachel Ruto’s prayer warriors’ club. At Harambee House Annex, Cheruiyot is blamed for flooding the office with his tribe mates
3. Faroek Kibet: He is the DP’s personal assistant and banker; he handles all matters relating to facilitation/cash etc and any other job that may need fixing.
4. Oscar Kipchumba Sudi: The MP for Kapseret a known wheel dealer, he is presumed as just a cartel, he is close to Ruto but also to Gideon Moi and Raila Odinga and therefore good positioned to act as the linking pin with camp Tinga and also the KANU owner but Hon Sudi will only act if he is ordered by Ruto and therefore not helpful at all. Experienced political wheel dealers like Nancy Gitau, Stanley Murage and David Murathe are said to be ruthless to their bosses, they openly tell Uhuru if he is fucking up.
5. Nixon Korir: The youthful Langata MP whose win was computer generated is like a son to Ruto family, he has zero experience on Statecraft, his only experience is working for Ruto briefly before contesting for MP. He has no network within the Mt Kenya mafia and thus completely useless politically.
6. Davis Chirchir: He is the only one with experience but limited to electoral matters, he served in the defunct Kivuitu led Independent Electoral Commission and is alleged to be the brains behind the famous computer algorithms that played critical role at the national tallying centre- Bomas both in 2013 and 2017 general elections. He was President Uhuru’s national campaign manager both elections. He is respected by the Mt Kenya mafia over his critical role in successful elections since 2007.
Others are:
7. Emmanuel Talaam; the boy who manages the deputy president’s twitter account, lately he tweets bullshit thus sinking Ruto’s image further
8. Dennis Itumbi: The digital general whose only strength is to disseminate content, he has no capacity to create content. Ruto is yet to recruit a team that can create content, so far Eric Ngeno seems confused and despite his big English, he has no masterly of political propaganda but just official speech writing. Ever wondered why Itumbi is not very active as when he used to work for Uhuru, well, back them he had prepared content, his job was to master it and then disseminate on social media and defend it like his own, the content he shared was mainly created by the likes of Moses Kuria, Jasper Mbeuki etc etc.
When URP was being killed, veterans in politics like Isaac Ruto questioned the move. He asked hard questions, like who really owned the Party. But William Ruto kicked out all political giants in Kalenjin land. Giants who understood power and power games. He replaced them with babies in Political Diapers like Murkomen and the majority of the newcomer Kalenjin MPs. These guys had no power to advise William when he was making political blunders. They could not tell William to stop trusting too much….
You should always have elders like Isaac and Sally Kosgei…. They can tap your shoulders and tell “Boss, you are messing here”
But if you surround yourself with guys who worship you and feel just excited to hang around you………….. Well, you got the answer now!
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