Ruto’s visit to Moi’s home follows recent ones by President Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA leader Raila Odinga who met and held talks with him separately. Photo/FILE.
NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 4 – Political analysts are struggling to interpret Thursday’s embarrassing incident at the rural home of former President Daniel Arap Moi in Kabarak, where Deputy President William Ruto was blocked from seeing him.
Ruto was accompanied by Energy CS Charles Keter, Ainabkoi MP William Chepkut and lawyer Stephen Kipkenda.
A statement from Moi’s office said the visitors were ‘welcomed and served lunch’ but could not see the former president because the visit coincided with a routine physical exercise with his doctors.
“Unfortunately, this coincided with the time Mzee Moi was undergoing routine physical exercise with his doctors,” the statement said, adding that “ Mzee Moi agreed to meet the visitors at convenient time another day in the very near future.”
Officials farmiliar with the Deputy President’s diary however, said that the visit was well planned with an appointment booked, raising questions on why he was turned away.
While Ruto’s office blamed the hitch on “protocol frustrations”, analysts are reading politics in it and have cited the 2022 succession as the probable cause, given that Moi’s son Senator Gideon is angling for the top post.
Some leaders alied to Gideon’s KANU party like Tiaty MP Kamket Kasait have claimed that Ruto did not have an appointment with the former President.
Some people went and lied to Ruto that they had secured an appointment for him to meet Moi, and that was a lie. Moi was not aware of this,” Kasait said, “they lied to him and took him to Moi’s home yet he was not expecting visitors.”
“It is not possible that a Deputy President can have a problem booking an appointment with anyone in this country to an extent he has to do it through drama,” Herman Manyora, a University of Nairobi lecturer and political analyst said Friday, as debate on the embarrassing scene raged.
Ruto and Gideon have not publicly commented on the matter.
Ruto’s visit to Moi’s home follows recent ones by President Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA leader Raila Odinga who met and held talks with him separately.
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