Several months ago, I gatecrashed a lunch session attended by two not-so-junior Jubilee insiders.
It was around the time then Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu hosted a Tangatanga meeting attended by youths clad in yellow, rather than the Jubilee red, an action that seemed a throwback to the days when Deputy President William Ruto led the URP.
Being a heavy-duty consumer of history and political intrigue and since everybody at the lunch table was washing down the meal with copious amounts of politics, I took the chance to ask the two Jubilee insiders, “Just how did we get here?
How did it become okay for people in the President’s own party to disobey him so openly, then actually go on to antagonise him in his own county? Why are so many elected officials from the Mt Kenya region openly casting their lot with the DP rather than the President?”
The two insiders opted to start from the beginning.
Apparently, in the early life of their coalition, the differences in political approach between President Uhuru Kenyatta and DP Ruto became clear.
Uhuru, quintessentially from the Kibaki mould, wasn’t enthusiastic about the 'receiving goodwill delegations' style of politics or' greeting the members' -euphemism for dishing out handouts to supporters.
“Have you ever seen the boss (Uhuru) receiving goodwill delegations in Gatundu or at his home in Nairobi?” Of course, I hadn’t.
“Like Kibaki, he is not made for that kind of politics. But Ruto is a graduate of the Moi School and the Raila University of politics. He goes right to the people, meets them at his home, remembers people from the remotest parts of the country by their names, and is not averse to popping up at your rural home unannounced for lunch!”
It turns out that when Jubilee was conducting its primaries in 2017, Ruto practically controlled every structure of the party, and most of those elected through Jubilee in the 2017 General Election felt they owed allegiance to him.
It wasn’t until poll losers in Central Kenya raised an alarm over how the Jubilee nominations had been conducted that the President apparently first realised there was a problem in the party.
By then, the party’s elected folks and large parts of its grassroots were already loyal to Ruto and his 2022 agenda, even as the President tried to restore focus on his own term and legacy.
Fast forward to last week during the funeral service of former Nyamira Governor John Nyagarama. If it had been intended as a “funeral with a difference”, devoid of all the Tangatanga noise and indignity, and it was going quite well, up to a certain point.
Indeed, one speaker even thanked Interior CS Fred Matiang’i for ensuring Nyagarama’s service was full of class and dignity, euphemisms for 'keeping away Tangatanga from the burial'. That was until someone invited MPs to “say just your name and one word!”
I don’t know why masters of ceremonies still waste time asking Kenyan politicians to say “just your name and one word”, knowing very well politicians think they would die if they did that!
Anyway, as sure as day follows night, you were never going to bet against South Mugirango MP Sylvanus Osoro delivering greetings from DP Ruto. And as soon as he did, cheers broke out in the audience.
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2021-01-10-how-project-tame-ruto-is-collapsing-under-weight-of-incompetence/
Topic: How project ‘Tame Ruto’ is collapsing under weight of incompetence (Read 3603 times)