For Ruto, the toughest part of the battle is about to begin

Deputy President William Ruto took days off the campaign trail last week to presumably go cool off by the spectacular fountains of Dubai.

For a man reported to have done about 300 political rallies in 22 short months at some stage, he could do with more of such breaks to recharge as we enter the homestretch of campaigns for the August 9 elections.

The thing is, our politics is quite fluid and even a presidential candidate’s best-laid plans may fall apart sooner or later.

As they say in Kenya’s social media slang, one has to ‘Stay Taliban’.

Dr Ruto has fought many battles to save his political career in the past, including defending himself against charges at the International Criminal Court.

But in his quest to become Kenya’s fifth president, the toughest part of the battle is just about to begin.

While Dr Ruto was away in Dubai, President Uhuru Kenyatta summoned his loyal troops in Mt Kenya in the ruling Jubilee Party to State House to brief them about his latest battle plan on that front.

Media reports of the State House meeting on Friday focused on the routine political operations such as relaunching and popularising Jubilee Party in the President’s backyard, where Dr Ruto has lit a fire under his boss in the past four and a half years.

Power elite games

Sunday Nation columnist Gitau Warigi, who tends to keep an ear to the ground on the power elite games in Mt Kenya, wrote recently that it might take the form a Blitzkrieg – a more coordinated and swifter campaign aimed at significantly weakening Dr Ruto’s grip on the region.

Of course, the President will find it hard trying to reclaim a political territory that has been drifting to Dr Ruto’s UDA party and even much harder flipping it for his preferred successor, Raila Odinga.

But the President’s campaign in Mt Kenya will be helped in no small measure by Dr Ruto himself beginning to shoot himself in the foot.

The Deputy President’s recent move to bring ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetangúla on board is ruffling feathers among his loyalists from Mt Kenya, who fear being edged out of the inner circle. The rank and file might soon start having their doubts as well.

Dr Ruto’s short break from the campaign trail also offered Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetang’ula the chance to lead the Kenya Kwanza Alliance rallies in Nairobi and Naivasha and try to impress on probation.

The performance was underwhelming.

Video footage replayed on NTV’s Friday humour show Dr King’ori suggests that Mr Mudavadi, for instance, will struggle to connect with the Hustler Nation crowd.

The man from Mululu sounded quite off-key talking about pedigree dogs and mongrels at a rally where everyone else around was chanting simple slogans like ‘bottom-up’, mama mboga, boda boda and mtu wa chini.

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