You're splitting hairs. Uhuru was very young - doesn't matter if he was 40 or 38 - but he was shockingly young. Remember constitution had min age of 35yrs.
Ruto immediately he was elected - joined up with former Y2k - these were young - 30yrs old - and formed KANU B - they were pushing reforms.
Biwott had for most of Moi regime - be the guy Moi trusted - and he was leading KANUA - that was pushing for Saitoti to inherit Moi - with Biwott as VP.
So there was a big fight - Moi on the advice on Biwott - refused to hear anything about young turks of KANU - he crushed them.
Ruto and etc formed UDM - and started campaigning against Moi and KANU - that had refused reforms.
Moi saw the danger - and he promoted Ruto to Ass Minister in Home Affairs - and there began Ruto meticously ousting of Biwott and his entry to kitchen cabinet.
Whose IDEA was Uhuru - from what I know - Ruto used Gideon to get into Kitchen cabinet - Gideon was gatekeeper of statehouse - and slowly they planned - Gideon, Uhuru and Ruto - how to take over power. Remember both Gideon and uhuru were elite boys without any knowledge of even kiswahili or public speaking or politics. They had direct access to Moi - but zero political expereince.
Moi was slowly convinced that youths were ready and the change. It worked well because Moi saw Gideon in the matrix. Uhuru was to bring GEMA votes - and nick it.
The planned worked well until Raila TOSHA.
I personally started noticing Ruto in 2001! And I told my friend this guy will go FAR!
Ruto was the face and the engine of Uhuru/Youth push. He was the guy doing all the planning and the messaging.
Come on RV, you dissapoint on this , now if we were to take your argument which os actually erroneous by 1999 Uhuru was around 38 years .
Now going back to historical facts it is well known Moi had the liking , mentored and supported Children of his political leagues of 60s,70s the Ngala Katana, Moses Mudavadi etc and for this reason he fished Uhuru from his partying life to contest 1997 elections around that time is when Uhuru was 35 years , I dont think they had ever met and formed friendship with Ruto.
Moi had an idea of which kind of people he would hand over presidency and the likes of Ngala Mudavadi,Uhuru were an option. Suprisingly he even mentioned during 97 G.E. campaigns Kibaki was also a good option.
Another point is by 99 Ruto was a renegade in KANU he actually was one of the people fronting for UDM .He supposedly came back to Moi circles circa 2001 and having learnt to to catch Mois attention is to support him 100% ,he went full force in supporting Mois project who happened to be Uhuru from the Kasarani KANU NDP merger to 2002 G.E.
You mean 2002 GE - Uhuru was 41 Years Old then
Uhuru was elected at 35 years as who ?
The way he is dealing with mlevi punches...Ruto simply unstoppable.One response and the mlevi look like amerogwa.Ruto IQ is off charts. If it was Raila..he would already had been TKoed.Kalonzo recently tried to go at Ruto, one uppercut and he run to DCI.Ruto ignored his tantrums coz he wasn'teven mentioned. Mutua kind running to police eti amenifinya mkono.Not worth a response.The greatest political propagandist WSR ..guy behind youth revolution of kanu 90s that eventually saw a 35yr old uhuru elected as kanu candidate, odm change messaging that Raila kept going off the line that defeated kibaki economic miracle, the jubilee digital despite ICC, the reelection and now hustler..Ruto understand political marketing.He is a political genius. 55 yr old born to poverty giving way older folks stress.
As kanu candidate against heavy weights like satioti,biwott,raila,nyachae,mudavadi,kalonzo,ngala.Without kibaki tosha from kanu rebels Kibaki would have died without being pork.Raila tosha was instrumental .Ruto had worked on youth revolution with kanu B...until its succeeded almost. RAILA then was still smart enough to realise that Moi Moi Ruto had run circles around them..only option was to present another kikuyu.The issues was simple..if moi retires..why replace him with old man..let the youth take over. Kibaki had been abandoned by gema.He was lonely man.Tosha saved him
splitting hairs..uhuru enthroment was not one day affair..it is like hustler movement..it started way back in 1999..I think.Ruto lead the push to reform kanu and have youth take over immediately after he was elected mp.This was against entrenched kanu supremos.Kanu A and B.