THE RUTO CONSPIRACY

 I was going through our online sister-magazine "The Kenya Con" a while ago and came across this article written in 2019 tittled "The Ruto Conspiracy" and just thought to myself, "This is interesting." The article analyses what the writer purports to be a well-orchestrated conspiracy aimed at derailing any chances of Dr. William Ruto succeeding Mr. Kenyatta as Kenya's president. The writer does a good job detailing the plan of the "Deep State" to finish the deputy president. Given that this was written well before the fact, it is hard to deny that the writer more than accurately predicted the outcome of the grand plan of "the establishment" to tame the one-time firebrand politician. Let's read together..

The articles starts on a solemn note, "If you had asked any Kenyan just one year ago who they thought was best placed to succeed Uhuru Kenyatta as Kenya’s next president, many would have picked William Samoei Ruto. Ask anyone today and the sentiment are completely different." The writer then goes on and questions the reason for that change. He asks, "What has happened in such a short time? Is one year such a long time or is there something going on that we know not of?" The writer concludes that the change is not just by mere chance but the product of a state-sponsored conspiracy. "The obstacle on Ruto’s path seem bigger than a product of mere change in sentiment" he writes, "Ruto is the wrong man at the wrong time".

Without giving it much thought or substantiating it with real hard facts, the writer poignantly predicts, "Ruto is not going to be Kenya’s president come 2022". You have to agree with me that this was an audacious claim to make in 2019. Ruto was and still is the Deputy president of the republic of Kenya; by far the most powerful person in the land bar the president. To conclude rather casually that a person wielding that much power stands no chance at becoming the president of Kenya must have seemed rather presumptuous and fickle. And yet here we are today and the statement looks truer today more than ever! What else does this writer know? Let's find out..

"Ruto's name has been dragged through the mud", the writer continues as if it is an original claim, "His hitherto impeccable reputation is tainted." The writer seems to suggest that Dr. Ruto at some point had an impeccable record. He seems to think that Ruto's alleged criminal activities have been nothing but mere fabrications in a grand scheme to destroy the deputy president's image. He mentions land cases, high level corruption allegations, and a reputation damaged  beyond repair by perceived insatiable greed for personal gain as the major integrity issues deviling the man.

To the obvious irk of  Ruto's "fleeting support base", the writer concludes that this image of Ruto as a power- hungry, vengeful, land-grabbing maniac has been carefully and meticulously reinforced by the media which is the mouthpiece of  what he terms as "the establishment" by a carefully choreographed propaganda campaign. "The Ruto conspiracy is real" the writer trots out, "We can bury our heads in the sand and pretend that all these things facing Ruto are just random occurrences without any real intention behind them or we can open our eyes and follow the evidence to where it leads us, knowing that nothing just happens".

Indeed nothing just happens. Things happen for a reason. But what percentage of Ruto's perceived misfortune can we apportion to the necessary outcome of his own actions and what percentage can we attribute to be the product of the establishment's plan? "There’s a plan to cut Ruto down to size and finish him. The plan is to make Kenyans believe that Ruto is a corrupt individual surrounded by a dangerous gang of corrupt cronies." Well stated, but then again, as is too often the case, no evidence is put forth.

The writer then claims that the Building Bridges Initiative was just as much meant to isolate and sideline Mr. Ruto as it was a plan "to create more leadership positions for the elite." The plan was - the writer alleges -  to brandish BBI as the panacea to "Kenya’s endemic political and election problems" and brand those who oppose it (Ruto and his cronies) "as enemies of progress and then sideline them". This did not quite work out as the BBI project stalled, but who knows what could have been?

The writer then goes ahead and betrays himself and lists the reasons which he thinks will make the deputy president "un-electable" including the fact (or theory) that the king-maker cannot himself become the king... among other flimsy reasons.. One such reason that caught my attention is that "Ruto has fallen out with the Kenyan political establishment." And there is that word again "establishment". The writer doesn't tell us who they are, what their interests or motives are and what their modus operandi is. But why does the so-called establishment hate Mr. Ruto? Thankfully, we do not have to guess, "The most probable explanation is that Ruto is an outsider. He hasn't made the cut yet." says the writer who is clearly a conspiracy theorist. "This is not just about politics. It is a war of preservation." 

"Ruto cannot be trusted with power" The writer says from the perspective of the establishment, "He has scores to settle and they don’t know just what he might do. In short they fear him and rightly so".

Read the entire article here