The rise and rise of William Ruto

When William Ruto first moved to State House Nairobi, he was part of a delegation of students from the University of Nairobi who had gone to meet President Moi.

It was probably the first time he was meeting the President in person. Without doubt, he was astounded by the aura of power and the authority around the presidency. That day, something was ignited in the young man, who was only in his early twenties. He quickly made friends from the contacts he got there, and it was just a matter of time before he connected with them socially.

It was just about that time that the Youth for Kanu 1992, popularly known as YK’92, was formed to rein in the youth vote for the election of President Moi under the revised Constitution, allowing for the reintroduction of multipartyism. Ruto just happened to be at the right time and the right place.

He quickly joined the YK’92 and teamed up with Cyrus Jirongo and others to reach out to the youth. He vigorously campaigned in various parts of the country. Where the youth were, Ruto was in their midst. Among the many activities he carried out included donating Kanu-labelled T-Shirts to the Kenya Ladies Hockey Association, including trophies, balls and other equipment, and he was also there when the YK’92 donated athletics kits to the Kenya team for the Barcelona Olympics of 1992. He eventually succeeded in having Moi re-elected, albeit at only 36% of the vote.

In August 1993, long after YK’92 had been disbanded, he donated an incredible Sh53,000 to the Jua Kali Association through its chairperson Matthias Mwarabu to pay school fees for seven students. This was in keeping with promises that had been made to the group by Kanu during the campaigns. Now that they had secured the presidency, the party was somehow not in the mood to settle its debts. During the meeting, Ruto urged the party to keep its promises. The funds, which today have a similar purchasing power of about Sh200,000, were entirely from his pocket. This was no mean feat for a 27-year-old.

Between 1993 and 1997, Ruto busied himself with several business ventures, including a printing facility. He also brokered this and that, earning arbitrage in the process. He literally ‘hustled’ in the manner of his new political moniker. He continued to maintain his political connections, never failing to attend fundraisers for various causes. Even though he struggled financially during this period, he was still generous with the money he made. He had only recently married Rachel, who was a teacher, and they lived in a rented house in Nairobi’s South C.

BATTLE WITH THE TITANS

Back home, he set his eye on capturing the Eldoret North seat, then under Reuben Chesire. He began by mobilising the youth to form football teams and gave them football kits and seed money to enter the tournament he had planned. He launched what was known as the Ruto Cup, which came with cash prizes for the winning teams. The success of the tournament quickly made him a household name, particularly among the youth.

Born and raised in Kamagut, off the Maili Tisa junction on the road to Kitale, Ruto was just 21 in 1988, when Reuben Chesire took over as Eldoret North MP. In fact, he was a first-year student at the University of Nairobi during the famous Mlolongo election that saw Reuben Chesire defeat veteran politician William Saina. In 1992, Saina returned to his seat, trouncing Chesire, a political bigwig in his own right and a wealthy businessman and farmer.

Chesire, who was also Moi’s relative and business partner, had been a director in their transportation ventures, including the Great Valley Transporters. For a young man like Ruto, beating Reuben Chesire and William Saina was like digging up a baobab tree with bare hands.

Ruto’s break came in 1996, when President Moi announced that Kanu party national elections would be held ahead of the General Election of 1997. Ruto decided to run for the powerful position of Kanu branch organising secretary for Uasin Gishu. At the age of 29, he was a kid compared with the political titans he was running against. He won the seat and cleverly used it to extend his political influence. This position added to his visibility and he used it to position himself for his next move: running for Member of Parliament.

With the General Election looming, Ruto employed his knowledge of the Kanu party machine to put in his bid for the Eldoret North seat. After being cleared, he hit the ground running. By this time, he was already quite well-known thanks to the activities that had earned him great visibility.

President Moi came in person to Eldoret North and openly campaigned for Chesire, stating that he would not want the people to elect “Someone whose father I don’t know…” He was referring to Ruto’s father, Mzee Daniel Samoei arap Cheruiyot, an out-of-sorts farmer of Kamagut somewhat overwhelmed by the needs of his large family. President Moi obviously wouldn’t have known him. Ruto, who was there during that campaign tour, was badly embarrassed by Moi’s remarks but took it as a challenge. He was going to take the seat.

He doubled his effort, campaigning through the vast constituency, targeting young people tired of the same names on the ballot. He went after the political elite in pretty much the same way he used the ‘Hustler’ narrative with Kenyans desiring a break from the political families aptly identified as ‘Dynasties’. During the voting, he garnered an incredible 15,000 votes against Chesire’s 9,000 and Saina’s 6,000. The word on the ground was how the young man had upset the apple cart and disrupted the well-lined party favourite. This did not sit well with some powerful individuals. A plot was immediately hatched to deny him the ticket.

FIGHT FOR TICKET

Word quickly reached Ruto that despite his win, he would not be getting the ticket after all. The deadline to submit the nomination papers was fast approaching and with less than 24 hours to the close, he was yet to get his papers. He knew that the only person who could save him was President Moi. Ruto acted fast and made his way to Nairobi in the dead of the night with Eldoret Mayor Josiah Magut.

Arriving early the following morning, he knocked at the door of his friend Ken Boit (the co-writer here) and asked him to speak with Gideon Moi to present his case to President Moi. Ken, the son of former Provincial Commissioner Paul Boit, was close to Gideon Moi, having been initiated together in the late 1970s, in accordance with Nandi customary law, a fact that forged a close relationship between them. This included Gideon’s elder brother Philip.

They discovered to their horror that party honchos had hatched the idea of delaying Ruto’s certificate until the eleventh hour and then quietly handing it to their preferred candidate Reuben Chesire. The deadline to hand in the certificate was that very same day at 4pm, and in Eldoret. There was no time to waste. Ruto, Magut and Ken immediately drove to Gideon Moi’s home in Loresho, arriving there at 9am. They informed Gideon of their mission and its urgency. Gideon called his father and explained the situation. After much talking, Gideon eventually convinced his father to hand over the certificate to the rightful winner, Ruto. They probably did not realise that they had just set him on a path that would eventually see him become the fifth President of Kenya.

GOING FOR THE JUGULAR

With Moi’s consent, they rushed to party HQ and secured the ticket. Chesire, who was at Nakuru awaiting the party ticket, was unaware that the young upstart had already secured the ticket and was on his way to Eldoret to present the papers. Ruto drove frantically back to Eldoret to beat the 4pm deadline, arriving only minutes to the close. Hearing that the party ticket had been given to Ruto, Chesire furiously demanded to know what had happened. And by the time he was getting answers, the 31-year-old had already presented the papers to the returning officer in Eldoret. It was a done deal.

Ruto’s election was in the background of high political temperatures. Raila Odinga had just inherited his late father’s political base and was running for President. There was pressure for minimum reforms in the electoral system, which saw the IPPG (Inter-Party Parliamentary Group) propose fundamental changes ahead of the elections. This included the appointment of commissioners to the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) according to party strength.

The General Election took place on December 29, 1997, and President Moi retained his seat with an improved performance of 40 per cent of the vote, beating Kibaki and Raila in that order. Ruto firmly campaigned for President Moi across the country. This was yet another stab at national campaigning, an art he perfected over the years. From that uncharacteristic inception ensued an unbroken string of electoral victories that eventually landed him in the State House, this time as the occupant.

Soon after becoming Eldoret North MP, Ruto was appointed Assistant Minister for Internal Security in 1998 and became the first and only assistant minister to ever sit in a full Cabinet meeting.

Ruto went on to become a close confidante of President Moi. And he was not resting on his laurels. He relentlessly pursued business interests, founding among others the Africa Merchant Assurance Company (Amaco) in 2000, a company that continues to offer insurance to the general public. He also got into the tourism business.

At the tail end of Moi’s regime, he was eventually appointed Minister of Home Affairs, now only in his mid-30s. When President Moi settled for Uhuru Kenyatta as his preferred successor, Ruto became the lead campaigner for Uhuru’s first stab at the presidency. Due to the unexpected walkout by Raila Odinga and other Kanu party heavyweights in support of Kibaki, Uhuru Kenyatta resoundingly lost the election. Ruto stood by Moi’s man, and the rest is history.

This is the first of a 3-part series on the rise of Kenya’s fifth President William Ruto.

Godfrey K Sang ([email protected]) and Capt (rtd) Ken K Boit ([email protected]) are historical researchers and writers