Kenyan liberation struggles are often defined in key moments with main characters taking the centre stage.
In the war for national independence, the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) the Mau Mau leadership under Dedan Kimathi, and other public figures define that battle for Kenyans. They were the center stage of that struggle.
The Kapenguria six comprising Jomo Kenyatta, Ramogi Achien’g Oneko, Paul Ngei, Kungu Karumba, Bildad Kaggia, Fred Kubai exemplified the war in their trials by the colonialists at Kapenguria prison where they were jailed.
In the war to remove Moi from 24 years of dictatorship, Mwai Kibaki, Raila Amolo Odinga, Charles Rubia, Kenneth Matiba, Martin Shikuku, George Anyona, Wangari Maathai, James Orengo, Martha Karua, and many others gave Kenyans the names and image to rally around to defeat Nyayo and it happened in December 2002 even as Mwai Kibaki was hospitalized in England after a nasty road accident.
Today with the Ruto kakamini uprising, we have a new team of ‘revolutionaries’ to take our country to the next level.
We now have the Ruto Four that must now replace the Kapenguria Six and the Kibaki Tosha 2002 revolutions in Kenyan politics.
In the Ruto Four, we have Ndindi Nyoro, Kimani Ichungwah, Rigathi Gachagua, and Susan Kihika. It looks wonderful. Doesn’t it? Except nobody but Ruto knows these chaps because they are his own babies and part of his marvelous invention.
Will Kenyans buy this? I don’t think so.
It looks like Ruto is taking his own children to run the Board of Directors at the school. That could be problematic.
He has made it very clear that he needs every single Kikuyu vote to win the elections on August 9, 2022. The problem is that Ruto has pretty much zero Kikuyu leadership of any magnitude in his team. In the meantime, he has been trashing President Uhuru Kenyatta, the most well-known Kikuyu and Kenya’s national leader at the moment.
Can Ruto’s little boys attract the Kikuyu vote to William Ruto when there is no national figure there who can stand up to Ruto and represent the Kikuyu community if that becomes necessary?
Moi had Njonjo, he had Kibaki, Munyua Waiyaki, Kamotho and so many other Mt Kenya leaders that made the Kikuyu community comfortable when he took over from Kenyatta. Ruto has none of that because he thinks he owns the Kikuyu vote.
Well, they voted for him and Uhuru but never for him alone. Ruto needs to comprehend that but I don’t think he has the time and the mindset to figure it out.
Read: Frightening low voter turnout for UDA in Mt Kenya buries Ruto
Who does William Ruto have apart from his own self-made clowns within the Kikuyu community to get him that vote that he must get or lose the election? In the primaries, less than 10% of Kikuyu voters bothered to show up. He needs 90% of that total vote in August 2022. Not 90% of the 10% who show up.
In Western Kenya where Ruto thought with Mudavadi and Wetangula, he could dig into that 2 million vote, it is just not happening. That is that.
He now wants Mudavadi to be a CS of finance in his government if he gets elected.
The last person Ruto put there was Henry Rotich who is now in a mega corruption case that derailed the Jubilee dam-building projects right in Ruto’s backyard. Mudavadi himself has the Goldenburg nightmare of the Moi era when he was the finance minister.
In any even event, the voters in Western have not gone Ruto’s way as he hoped when he grabbed Mudavadi and his ANC party. In fact, the hefty tours and efforts of Western by Ruto, Mudavadi, and Wetangula have died out completely. They seem to have gotten the message that the voters there are going with Azimio.
So if you are Ruto, here things are looking bleak. The Kikuyu vote is no longer a guarantee which is pretty much a political death sentence for UDA. Western has refused to come over. You already gave up on the Luo vote. Kisii has turned to Azimio big time. The Coast is the Coast with all its troubles for you. Where do you go for the votes?
Then some really big things are just about to happen and I am not talking about the DP nomination in the next week.
Big news from Nairobi is that Jubilee may work out a deal with ODM to have Polycarp Igathe go for governor and Tim Wanyonyi as his running mate.
For the first time maybe Nairobi will have the county leadership that they deserve. The population of Nairobi is bigger than that of many countries around the world.
The wealth generated from Nairobi county could make the budget of many countries and as of now, Kenya’s GDP depends on Nairobi. And yet we have had the worst forms of crooks and thugs run that county. It is a sin, to put it mildly.
With that team of Igathe and Wanyonyi whichever way it works Nairobi will be on a path to real change and great progress. It has to be done and they need to work with the other Azimio-affiliated candidate Mr. Ngatia to make everything work.
Nairobi had 1.6 million votes in 2017. Sonko had about 900,000 votes and Kidero had 700,000 votes. Sonko’s votes went to Uhuru and Jubilee and Kidero’s went to Raila and NASA.
Now imagine Azimio pulls all that Nairobi vote together and you are talking over 1 million votes for Raila and Azimio. Game over. You bring Raila and Uhuru together in Nairobi and they have a credible team for the county that is exactly what is going to happen.
Mombasa is coming along the same lines. Nakuru is on the map. Kakamega is right there and so is Kisumu, Kisii town, and most urban centers.
That is how Azimio will kill Ruto’s small politics where there are no plans for the big voting areas. That is coming and it is coming hard and fast on Ruto.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
