NAIROBI, Kenya Sep 12 – Deputy President William Ruto now says better suits the description a “survivor” having survived numerous political battles in his career, including currently when he viewed more of an outsider in government.
Ruto said that looking back, he is convinced that he is more of a survivor than a hustler because of the storms he has weathered.
“I was in Mombasa and some people acknowledged me as hustler while others called me Mheshimwa (honourable). One person who I don’t know why, called me a survivor. I didn’t understand why, until today. I have realized that indeed am a survivor,” Ruto told a congregation at the Global Cathedral church in Langata constituency, on Sunday.
Ruto has been at the centre of political controversies since last year when his differences with his boss President Uhuru Kenyatta intensified following the Head of State’s handshake with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
He accuses a section of senior government officials at Harambee House led by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi and Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho of frustrating him.
Two weeks ago, his boss President Kenyatta urged him to resign instead of always criticising the government from within.
He has since embraced his United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party which he intends to use to vie in the 2022 election when he hopes to succeed President Kenyatta whose second and final term will come to end in August 2022.
Ruto has made it clear that Kenyatta and Odinga’s association is aimed at blocking him from the race and he accuses leaders tearing apart his UDA party and its symbol to focus on rebuilding their own parties.
“For those who have problems with the simplicity of the wheelbarrow symbol they can as well tell us about the complexity of the orange, ” Ruto said in a direct response to ODM leaders who have criticised UDA’s choice of a wheelbarrow as a party symbol.
Odinga accused Ruto and his allies of taunting themselves as the “digital” leaders, yet they were busy dishing tools that have been outdated over time.
“They have forgotten what they promised the children laptops and they have come back telling us that they want to give our youth wheelbarrows. What can you do with a wheelbarrow? A wheelbarrow is an equipment only needed at construction sites for ferrying ballast. That is an insult,” said Raila.
But Ruto has defended the wheel barrow saying it signifies his bottom-up economic model which he intends to employ if elected president next year.
