William Ruto Declared Winner Of Kenya’s Presidential Election

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 15- During the campaign period, Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate William Ruto described himself as a man on a mission.

And indeed, he was, if the steady rise in his political career is a reference.

The 55-year-old was once a chicken seller along the busy Eldoret-Malaba Highway, a legislator, a cabinet minister, and later a Deputy President for 10 years.

He also served as the Acting President of Kenya between October 5 and 8 in 2014, while President Uhuru Kenyatta was away at the Hague.

Political pundits say Ruto is a student of many; from the late Daniel Arap Moi, who served as Kenya’s President for 24 years to Raila Odinga- who was his closest rival in the August 9 elections.

He has overcome a well-oiled campaign by Odinga-who was backed by the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, following a bitter fallout with his Deputy, upon their re-election for the second term.

Now christened as ‘The Doyen’ or ‘The Chief Hustler’ by his political supporters, Ruto and his deputy Rigathe Gachagua- a businessman and a one-time elected Member of Parliament who once served as Kenyatta’s aide- led a bare-knuckle campaign, that did not spare even his boss.

“I am a son of a nobody,” he would say during political rallies across the country.

He would in some days or even a week, hold 5 or more rallies across the country, but it is in Kenyatta’s vote-rich backyard, the Mt Kenya region he pitched a tent.

His party’s United Democratic Alliance symbol was a wheelbarrow, which resonates more with Kenya’s ‘haves not’.

He was at some point accused of driving a class war, through what his critics said was the hustlers versus dynasties mantra.

But he refuted the claims saying the mantra was about, “rescuing the country from state capture and cronyism.”

When he unveiled his manifesto, he dedicated it to the hustlers- those “at the bottom of the pyramid”.

He has pledged to bring them “durable growth while maintaining macroeconomic stability”.

President Kenyatta and Ruto were among 6 Kenyans taken to the International Criminal Court, for allegedly committing crimes against humanity.

The cases were dropped, with the prosecution citing massive interference of witnesses.

-His political career-

Ruto was a Member of Parliament from 1998 to 2013.

He served as Minister for Home Affairs in the Daniel Arap Moi administration from August to December 2002.

He later served in the Mwai Kibaki administration as Minister of Agriculture from 2008 to 2010 and as Minister for Higher Education from April to October 2010.

His manifesto is about an ‘economic revolution’ while that of Odinga was about fighting corruption.

Ruto competed for a parliamentary seat at the 1997 Kenyan general election where he surprisingly beat the incumbent, Reuben Chesire, Moi’s preferred candidate, as well as the Uasin Gishu KANU branch chairman and assistant minister.

After this, he would later gain favour with Moi and be appointed KANU Director of Elections.

His strong support in 2002 for Moi’s preferred successor Uhuru Kenyatta saw him get a place as assistant minister in the Home Affairs (Interior) ministry docket.

Later in that election, as some government ministers resigned to join the opposition, he would be promoted to be the full Cabinet Minister in the ministry.

KANU lost the election but he retained his parliamentary seat. Ruto would thereafter be elected KANU Secretary General in 2005 with Uhuru Kenyatta getting elected as Chairman.

In 2005, Kenya held a constitutional referendum which KANU opposed.

Some members of the ruling NARC coalition government, mainly former KANU ministers who had joined the opposition coalition in 2002 under the LDP banner and who were disgruntled as President Kibaki had not honored a pre-election MoU on power-sharing and creation of a Prime Minister post, joined KANU to oppose the proposed constitution.

Since the symbol of the “No” vote was an Orange, this new grouping named their movement the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). Ruto was part of its top brass, dubbed the Pentagon.

He solidified his voter base in the Rift Valley Province. ODM was victorious in the referendum.