The silent war between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto is now full-blown, less than 9 days to the highly anticipated August 9 General Election.
For the better part of their second term, the duo has been cautiously confronting each other following their political fallout in early 2018 when President Uhuru entered a partnership deal with his former rival Raila Odinga.
Anyone who saw the duo’s political bromance in the 2013 and 2017 general elections would never have imagined their friendship will degenerate into the hatred being witnessed now.
It all started with President Uhuru taking a swipe at his deputy early in the week, accusing him of being a serial liar who peddles half-truths to gain political mileage.
The Head of State spoke while commissioning the Naivasha Industrial Park based at the Naivasha Inland Container Depot.
His deputy shot back almost instantly the next day, asking the President to at least respect the fact he (Ruto) supported him when he needed his support so he should stop talking about him.
While addressing a series of political rallies in South Rift and parts of Bungoma County, Ruto took his attacks against his boss a notch higher by asking him not to touch his family.
“Now you (President Uhuru) have started threatening me, what do you want to do to me? For as long as you don’t kill my children, kindly let us respect each other,” said a charged Ruto amid cheers from his supporters.
Earlier, Ruto had told of president Uhuru for constantly talking about him and instead focusing on selling Raila Odinga’s presidential bid.
This, he said, is because Raila Odinga is his (Uhuru’s) preferred successor and would benefit more from the Head of State’s political addresses.
As if that was not enough, Ruto followed up his charged address with a social media post in the evening cautioning President Uhuru against using state officers to try to influence the outcome of the August 9 presidential election.
“Mr President, why are chiefs and other public servants being forced and threatened, in secret meetings, to undermine, manipulate and sabotage peaceful elections? What will it benefit you to foment conflict amongst innocent Kenyans? Boss, let’s not take the country in this direction,” reads the social media post seen by Kivumbi.co.ke.
Such an action, Ruto believes, is tantamount to pushing the country to the edge and might result in unnecessary suffering and the shedding of innocent Kenyans’ blood.
The former Eldoret North MP and his running-mate Rigathi Gachagua have repeatedly claimed, without proof, that government was coercing chiefs, county commissioners, and the entire provincial administration to influence the forthcoming presidential election in favour of Raila Odinga, his main challenger.
