NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 7 – President Elect William Ruto will go down in Kenya’s history as the first Deputy President to clinch Presidency in his first trial.
He has been serving as deputy president under President Uhuru Kenyatta since 2013 after supporting him in two elections.
Former President the late Daniel Moi also rose from vice president to becoming Kenya’s second President but only after the death of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first President in 1978.
Moi served as President for 24 years.
Others who have served in the Vice President’s post now referred to as Deputy President after the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution, include Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Joseph Murumbi, former President the late Mwai Kibaki, Josephat Karanja, George Saitoti, Musalia Mudavadi, Kijana Wamalwa, Moody Awori and Kalonzo Musyoka.
Ruto was declared the President-Elect on August 15, after garnering 7,176,141 votes, representing 50.49 per cent of the votes cast, against Odinga’s 6,942,930 votes, translating to 48.85 per cent of the votes cast.
His election was challenged at the Supreme Court by Odinga and 7 other petitioners who alleged fraud in the poll, but the case was dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence.
Odinga was enjoying the support of the incumbent President Kenyatta.
President elect Ruto worked under Kenyatta after they joined hands in 2013 in what political pundits said was a political marriage of convenience forged in the aftermath of deadly post-poll violence in 2007-2008 that largely pitted the Kikuyu — Kenyatta’s tribe — against the Kalenjin, Ruto’s ethnic group.
Both men were hauled before the International Criminal Court (ICC), accused of stoking the ethnic unrest.
The cases were eventually dropped, with the prosecution complaining of a relentless campaign of witness intimidation.
But Ruto was left out in the cold after Kenyatta shook hands with longtime foe Odinga in a dramatic switch of political allegiance in 2018.
He bounced back with a campaign that was directed as much at Kenyatta as his rival at the ballot box, blaming the government for Kenya’s economic woes and even accusing the president of threatening him and his family.
The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld Ruto’s victory, ending weeks of political uncertainty
“This is a unanimous decision. The petitions are hereby dismissed, as a consequence we declare the first respondent (Ruto) as president-elect,” Chief Justice Martha Koome said.
Ruto will now be sworn in on Tuesday next week and officially take over the reins of power from President Kenyatta.
Ruto first got a foot on the political ladder in 1992.
After completing studies in botany, he headed the YK’92, a youth movement tasked with drumming up support for the former President Moi.
In 1997, he tried his luck by running for Eldoret North parliamentary seat which he clinched and retained in subsequent elections. He also served as a cabinet minister in charge of Agriculture and Education.
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