Post by podp on Jan 5, 2014 9:10:40 GMT 3
The question of Ruto's 'fixers’
In fact, it was in the theatre of the ICC’s Chamber V (b) that the first chinks in the TNA/URP armor that produced the political miracle of the Kikuyu-Kalenjin Jubilee machine and “Tyranny of Numbers” factor became evident. The evidence piling up in court against Ruto and radio broadcaster Joshua arap Sang regarding post-election violence atrocities in Rift Valley was collected by experts, including Intelligence officers. And it was first gathered long before it became apparent that Ruto and Uhuru would unite, and unite their large communities behind them, for the purposes of the Kibaki succession.
When Ruto’s British lawyer Karim Khan declared in court that his client had been fixed by national security bureaucrats, at least 10 of whom were not only in government but in and around the presidency, he detonated the first phase of a multistage political time bomb.
Later, Kericho Senator Charles Keter, a Ruto confidant, confirmed Khan’s courtroom comments and named names, among them those of Internal Security Principal Secretary Mutea Iringo and Presidential Political Adviser Nancy Gitau.
Keter even went as far as to call for the immediate resignation of all 10 operatives, saying URP were finding it increasingly intolerable to coexist in the same ruling coalition with the Deputy President’s “fixers”.
And then Ruto’s side let slip one of the clinchers of 2013: the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) has yet to show the Deputy President their full file on him as collected during the post-election violence. This was a remarkable piece of news, particularly considering that Ruto is now faced with the court battle of his life and is second in command to the President and Commander-in-Chief himself.
Ruto’s predicament despite his elevated circumstances resonated all the more when considered alongside former Prime Minister Raila’s own disclosure earlier in the year when he was launching his autobiography, entitled Flame of Freedom, written with veteran editor Sarah Elderkin. Raila told a Daily Nation interviewer that the intelligence service had taken him on an elaborate runaround regarding the manuscript of a book he had written in detention and other key details of his three stints in detention without trial adding up to a total of nine years behind bars. And this despite his having risen to Prime Minister and Co-Principal of the Grand Coalition Government, another 50-50 political cohabitation in which some partners were ultimately more equal than others.
Although no love whatever is now lost between them, Ruto and Raila separately bear powerful testimony to the grip the Kikuyu power elite exert on the key levers of Kenya’s national-security State.
Another Keter, Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, a first-termer in Parliament, came out with his dramatic allegations that the URP grassroots in the Rift Valley were unhappy with the manner the Jubilee regime was sharing power. Claiming to speak for the Deputy President and the Kalenjin community, the young Keter, who is still in his 30s, sparked off a mini crisis that saw Kenyatta and Ruto camp in Rift Valley for two consecutive days trying to calm the grassroots.
Realities of power politics
Ruto ended 2013 furiously fighting a rearguard political battle, insisting that he is happy in the Jubilee Alliance and in the power pact on which it is grounded. But the truth of the matter remains that presidential power is indivisible and Ruto, like the 10 VPs from December 1964 to February 2013, is effectively the President’s errand boy in terms of power politics.
Like the old VPs, Ruto finds himself in the awkward position of defending his President even when the issue in question is patently indefensible – for instance the state corporation chairmanships that Uhuru gazetted during the Christmas break that elicited cries of pain and protest even from within Jubilee itself. The old posture of unity at the top is still in use in the new era and the latest presidency and still as unconvincing and politically ritualistic as ever.
The choicest positions will still go to the Mt Kenyans, however restive Ruto’s grassroots get, just as they did through two Presidential administrations across a total of 25 years (Jomo Kenyatta's 1964-1978 tenure and Kibaki’s decade, 2003-2013).
Power play and its impacts on policy in Kenya and access to the national pie of the economy and its opportunities have a template that not even the UhuRuto administration can easily alter, however fine their rhetoric. This was amply demonstrated by Moi’s 24 consecutive years at the helm, a period during which the Rift Valley power elite bestrode Kenya like there was no tomorrow.
The fate of the Jubilee Alliance, and particularly Ruto’s own fate, will determine where political power pacts and alliances created for the purpose of capturing the State go next. A variety of outcomes is on the cards, among them the fall of Ruto and a reconsideration of the Rift Valley grassroots’ stake in Jubilee. This would be no big deal, provided that the Kikuyu power elite can partner with other large ethnic vote bloc battalions and maintain its “Tyranny of Numbers” factor.
However, how Mt Kenya and Rift Valley part ways, if it ever happens, would matter very greatly indeed for the future of the Kikuyu factor in the presidency. If a falling out takes the shape of demonstrable complaints and grievances from the Rift to the effect that partnering with the Mountain is a lost cause because the Kikuyu power elite will simply not share the spoils of office meaningfully, there would be hell to pay for the Mountain in future presidential contests.
Other complex scenarios could emerge in the course of 2014 that might result in not dissimilar dire consequences. For instance, what happens at the ICC is crucial to what happens inside Jubilee. Say, for instance, that the case against President Kenyatta collapses completely, as it ended 2013 showing every sign of doing, but the case against Ruto drags on. The scenario will change drastically from one in which both members of the Kenyan Presidency were crimes-against-humanity ICC indictees to one where only the Deputy President is still in court. Kenyans will watch their Presidency with hawk eyes for any sign that Uhuru is not treating Ruto right, including taking some responsibilities from him as the case races towards a judgment climax.
www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-149268/will-rutos-fate-vindicate-rift-valley-elite
In fact, it was in the theatre of the ICC’s Chamber V (b) that the first chinks in the TNA/URP armor that produced the political miracle of the Kikuyu-Kalenjin Jubilee machine and “Tyranny of Numbers” factor became evident. The evidence piling up in court against Ruto and radio broadcaster Joshua arap Sang regarding post-election violence atrocities in Rift Valley was collected by experts, including Intelligence officers. And it was first gathered long before it became apparent that Ruto and Uhuru would unite, and unite their large communities behind them, for the purposes of the Kibaki succession.
When Ruto’s British lawyer Karim Khan declared in court that his client had been fixed by national security bureaucrats, at least 10 of whom were not only in government but in and around the presidency, he detonated the first phase of a multistage political time bomb.
Later, Kericho Senator Charles Keter, a Ruto confidant, confirmed Khan’s courtroom comments and named names, among them those of Internal Security Principal Secretary Mutea Iringo and Presidential Political Adviser Nancy Gitau.
Keter even went as far as to call for the immediate resignation of all 10 operatives, saying URP were finding it increasingly intolerable to coexist in the same ruling coalition with the Deputy President’s “fixers”.
And then Ruto’s side let slip one of the clinchers of 2013: the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) has yet to show the Deputy President their full file on him as collected during the post-election violence. This was a remarkable piece of news, particularly considering that Ruto is now faced with the court battle of his life and is second in command to the President and Commander-in-Chief himself.
Ruto’s predicament despite his elevated circumstances resonated all the more when considered alongside former Prime Minister Raila’s own disclosure earlier in the year when he was launching his autobiography, entitled Flame of Freedom, written with veteran editor Sarah Elderkin. Raila told a Daily Nation interviewer that the intelligence service had taken him on an elaborate runaround regarding the manuscript of a book he had written in detention and other key details of his three stints in detention without trial adding up to a total of nine years behind bars. And this despite his having risen to Prime Minister and Co-Principal of the Grand Coalition Government, another 50-50 political cohabitation in which some partners were ultimately more equal than others.
Although no love whatever is now lost between them, Ruto and Raila separately bear powerful testimony to the grip the Kikuyu power elite exert on the key levers of Kenya’s national-security State.
Another Keter, Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, a first-termer in Parliament, came out with his dramatic allegations that the URP grassroots in the Rift Valley were unhappy with the manner the Jubilee regime was sharing power. Claiming to speak for the Deputy President and the Kalenjin community, the young Keter, who is still in his 30s, sparked off a mini crisis that saw Kenyatta and Ruto camp in Rift Valley for two consecutive days trying to calm the grassroots.
Realities of power politics
Ruto ended 2013 furiously fighting a rearguard political battle, insisting that he is happy in the Jubilee Alliance and in the power pact on which it is grounded. But the truth of the matter remains that presidential power is indivisible and Ruto, like the 10 VPs from December 1964 to February 2013, is effectively the President’s errand boy in terms of power politics.
Like the old VPs, Ruto finds himself in the awkward position of defending his President even when the issue in question is patently indefensible – for instance the state corporation chairmanships that Uhuru gazetted during the Christmas break that elicited cries of pain and protest even from within Jubilee itself. The old posture of unity at the top is still in use in the new era and the latest presidency and still as unconvincing and politically ritualistic as ever.
The choicest positions will still go to the Mt Kenyans, however restive Ruto’s grassroots get, just as they did through two Presidential administrations across a total of 25 years (Jomo Kenyatta's 1964-1978 tenure and Kibaki’s decade, 2003-2013).
Power play and its impacts on policy in Kenya and access to the national pie of the economy and its opportunities have a template that not even the UhuRuto administration can easily alter, however fine their rhetoric. This was amply demonstrated by Moi’s 24 consecutive years at the helm, a period during which the Rift Valley power elite bestrode Kenya like there was no tomorrow.
The fate of the Jubilee Alliance, and particularly Ruto’s own fate, will determine where political power pacts and alliances created for the purpose of capturing the State go next. A variety of outcomes is on the cards, among them the fall of Ruto and a reconsideration of the Rift Valley grassroots’ stake in Jubilee. This would be no big deal, provided that the Kikuyu power elite can partner with other large ethnic vote bloc battalions and maintain its “Tyranny of Numbers” factor.
However, how Mt Kenya and Rift Valley part ways, if it ever happens, would matter very greatly indeed for the future of the Kikuyu factor in the presidency. If a falling out takes the shape of demonstrable complaints and grievances from the Rift to the effect that partnering with the Mountain is a lost cause because the Kikuyu power elite will simply not share the spoils of office meaningfully, there would be hell to pay for the Mountain in future presidential contests.
Other complex scenarios could emerge in the course of 2014 that might result in not dissimilar dire consequences. For instance, what happens at the ICC is crucial to what happens inside Jubilee. Say, for instance, that the case against President Kenyatta collapses completely, as it ended 2013 showing every sign of doing, but the case against Ruto drags on. The scenario will change drastically from one in which both members of the Kenyan Presidency were crimes-against-humanity ICC indictees to one where only the Deputy President is still in court. Kenyans will watch their Presidency with hawk eyes for any sign that Uhuru is not treating Ruto right, including taking some responsibilities from him as the case races towards a judgment climax.
www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-149268/will-rutos-fate-vindicate-rift-valley-elite
decades. It 
of Rugut away from the NYS was a castration, a humiliation, an emasculation. That it was done by SMS was just the nail in the coffin which said, you are a nothing.
