Robina, stop being a Ruto apologist. Even Pundit does not apologize for him as much as you have been since that incident on your way to Damascus.
The 2010 constitution which Ruto must take the oath to defend should he become president is 100% based on the liberal political ideology. You can even say that our constitution is Liberal (left of center). I therefore believe that someone who is not a liberal is disqualified from being the president of Kenya because they cannot be anti-liberalism and still take the oath to defend it.
Ruto also claims to be digital/modern/young and western educated. I would therefore assume he is liberal because all western education is based on liberal values. We are therefore assuming that he is liberal and all we want him to do is to define himself in the liberal spectrum of left to right. In other words, we are assuming that he believes in democracy, civil liberties, freedoms of speech, association, free market economy,etc. He should therefore feel comfortable articulating his political ideology using international gold standard language for liberal political ideology.
There are more than enough Kenyans who understand these political terminologies who are interested in knowing Ruto's political ideology and therefore he should not hide in the crap that "Kenya is not mature" . The constitution demands that a president must hold a college degree even though most Kenyans do not have a college degree. I guess the rationale for that is because the president who is required to uphold the constitution, needs to have some basic understanding of the liberal concepts that the new Kitiba is based on.
The notion that the left/right political ideology definition is a straight jacket is a copout. There is enough room along the liberal spectrum to accommodate everybody. Moreover, if someone does not believe in the liberalism, then he is not only disqualified to be the president of Kenya under the current constitution and the more reason why we should demand leaders to articulate their political ideologies. Those who are not running for office like your nanny are exempt.
Ideology is as good as a person's character. My nanny's ideology is that people should work smart and retire young and rich. Yet she's over 60, poor and not contemplating retirement. This to mean what people actually do is much more useful than any ideals they proclaim. Which leads to my conclusion that Ruto's performance track record is good enough for me regardless of any ideology he may hold public or secret.
He has to have an ideology. Maybe he just does not articulate it well or at all. He seems to have time for yule mtu wa kitendawili. One would think he must have some time for articulating something germane to governance.
His party URP spelt out African traditional values and Christianity. Small, efficient government which cannot have fat layers like regions. Counties work just fine. This is my reading - you said I was making it up earlier on this thread. You must note I have been a keen observer of Ruto longer than RV Pundit. I love smart, efficient achievers so it's not necessarily for love of politics. Any outlier of interest is likely to be on my radar.
No, Ruto does not need to spell out any ideology. Kenya is not at that level and people want to hear about food, jobs, security, taxes, roads, etc which they cannot tie to any ideology and such alien concepts.
I said that because I have never heard Ruto discussing government size or structure. To be fair, I have heard him opposing the creation of new positions because he doesn't want to give Raila a panya route to power. That is about as much ideology as I have heard from the guy.
So you say he doesn't need to spell out any ideology. How is he supposed to convince people that what he promises is viable? After all he is not unique among politicians in wanting to leapfrog Kenya into middle/first world. Is that not necessary because he hopes to use the tried and tested MOASS?
Because Kenya is not [mature] enough for lack of a better word. If Kenyans demanded to know leaders' ideologies Ruto et al would suddenly craft simplified versions. It's where we are as a country.
Ask a layman what ideology is in Nairobi streets, see what you get. In the west people are in the right or left straightjacket. There isn't much flavor to go around even here.