Deputy President William Ruto yesterday singled out his Cabinet colleagues for the attack, accusing bureaucrats around the Head of State of a streak of government failures since 2018.

Ruto, who is on his second leg of a 10-day overseas trip, said the people who had been picked by President Uhuru Kenyatta to take over roles he previously performed in the Jubilee government’s first term had been failures.

The DP, who is constitutionally a member of the cabinet, cited Executive Order Number One of 2019 that elevated Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to be a de facto Chief Minister, taking over duties and responsibilities previously assigned to Ruto between 2013 and 2017.

Through the order, Matiang’i started chairing the National Development Implementation and Communication Cabinet Committee, which the President established to supervise all the government operations and projects and report directly to him on the progress. 

Members of the committee included all Cabinet Secretaries, Attorney General and Head of Public Service. The formation of the committee was seen as an attempt by Uhuru to neutralise Ruto after being the face of government for most of the first term.

Speaking at Chatham House, London yesterday, Ruto, who has fallen out with the President, revisited talks with Uhuru around that time, saying the discussions were candid and meant to reduce his (Ruto’s) influence in government in the final five years of the Jubilee administration.

Ruto said he performed his roles “with distinction” as expected in the first term, saying they had delivered the Standard Gauge Railway, 10,000km of paved roads and initiated Technical and Vocational Education and Training programmes.

“In the second term, the President said he wanted to do things differently. He wanted a Uhuru, not Uhuruto. We had a candid discussion with the President and he told me he wanted to have a Uhuru presidency in the second term. He wanted his legacy as the fourth President and I was not fuzzy about it. He said he wanted somebody else to coordinate programmes and work on government assignments. The Executive Order 1 (2019) came into force and I did not have any quarrel with it because that is how the President wanted to deliver on his second term,” the DP said.

He, however, said Matiang’i and those who were picked by the President had performed “dismally”, claiming they had overseen the collapse of the government’s flagship projects.

“The people the President gave the responsibility failed him because the whole Big Four Agenda fell apart, the housing plan never took off, the Universal Health Coverage never took off and the whole space on agricultural transformation faltered and we did not see any of that plan,” Ruto said, claiming the President was forced to change the plan to supporting the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) instead of focusing on the Big Four Agenda.

Ruto’s judgment of the government’s performance is contrary to what the President has been reporting in the last few weeks as he met various groups to beseech them to support the Azimio la Umoja movement he is crafting with foe-turned-ally Raila Odinga, the Orange Democratic Movement leader.

Sagana III

While hosting the Sagana III meeting in Nyeri County bringing together Mt Kenya leaders and opinion shapers recently, the President said his administration had fulfilled most of the Jubilee promises in the second term, lavishing praises on his loyal cabinet members including Peter Munya (Agriculture), whom he singled out for praise for reviving the farming sector. 

The President has also often given strong thumbs up to the Interior CS and has tasked him with overseeing the transition from his government to the next, which he hopes will be led by Raila.

But in London yesterday, the DP did not cease his unguarded attacks on the government he has been part of in the last nine years, aiming jabs and punches without sparing Raila and the opposition.

He still went on hard on the Handshake between Uhuru and Raila in March 2018 that has been praised by their supporters for lowering political temperatures after the disputed 2017 elections.

Ruto did not, however, see the Handshake as the source of peace as claimed, saying it was a conspiracy between Uhuru and Raila so they could not fulfil the promises they had made to their political allies.

He appeared to question the President and Raila’s failure to honour their pledges to their allies, saying their Handshake was meant to cover up their “dishonesty”.

Before their fallout, the President had publicly said he would support Ruto to take over from him for 10 years. Recently, Raila came under scrutiny from a former ally, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, for reneging on a promise to support his (Kalonzo’s) presidential candidature this year.

“I want a piece of honesty and decency around the unity calls. The Handshake was about the unity of the country. It later turned out that it was a conspiracy, it was not genuine. What happened? There was no unity, there were no building bridges. The Handshake destroyed Jubilee, the ruling party, Nasa. It destroyed the government agenda. As we call for unity, it is the unity of the leaders,” he said.

He added: “Kenya is in a worse place today because there is no oversight. Those supposed to provide oversight are the ones driving scandals, from Kemsa… there is no clear line between the government, there is no oversight because the opposition has become brokers, lackeys, organising cartels, participating in corruption,” he charged.    

Despite claiming concerns around the credibility of the coming polls, Ruto, however, said he was ready to accept the outcome of the August elections challenging his competitors to commit to the same publicly. He asked the international community to apply pressure on those he will compete with to get to accept the outcome of the polls.