For Uhuru, it’s now anyone but DP Ruto

As a professed born-again Christian, Deputy President William Ruto tends to take to the National Annual Prayer Breakfast like a duck to water.

With biblical verses rolling off the tongue, he has been the star act at past ceremonies organised and hosted by Parliament.

At this year’s event at Safari Park Hotel last week, he was in his element, confessing he may have fallen short of his boss President Uhuru Kenyatta’s expectations, and asking for his forgiveness.

But what were the odds that Dr Ruto’s prayer was going to be granted though? Social media body language experts appeared to have ruled out any chance of forgiveness, and they were right.

The two kept a social distance stretching from here to Timbuktu during the sermons, while the eye-contact avoidance captured in some picture frames from the ceremony left little to the imagination.

At the Thursday prayer breakfast, Dr Ruto also seemed to be making the same mistake that has cost him his boss’s trust: speaking out of both sides of the mouth.

Personal credit

The Deputy President has on some occasions showered praises on his boss, only to rubbish the latter’s legacy the next day or week. On other occasions, he has cherry-picked the administration’s successes in expanding public infrastructure across the country and sought to claim personal credit for them.

During the State funeral of former President Kibaki in April, a bullish Dr Ruto, buoyed by a cheering crowd, appeared to throw a jibe at Mr Kenyatta by declaring his predecessor Kenya’s best President ever. At a number of his past public rallies, the Deputy President has stood there watching as some of his ill-mannered attack dogs go after his boss’s family, including his elderly mother.

People who have interacted with the President say there’s no better way to get under his skin than attacking his family.

On that score alone, to say that the President must be sick of the sight of his deputy is an understatement.

But the clearest indication that Mr Kenyatta won’t be holding out an olive branch was his scorched-earth treatment of the man from Sugoi at the June 1 Madaraka Day celebrations.

As if failing to acknowledge Dr Ruto’s presence in his speech at Uhuru Gardens wasn’t painful enough, the President twisted the knife by telling Kenyans why he believes the Deputy President should be kept as far away from power as possible.

He had already demonstrated just how lowly he rates Dr Ruto by publicly endorsing opposition leader Raila Odinga’s candidature and appearing to mobilise the State machinery behind his campaign for the August 9 elections.

The surprise nomination recently of Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua, until recently a fierce critic of the Kenyatta administration’s policies, as Mr Odinga’s running mate suggests that for the President, it has got to a point where it’s anyone but Ruto.

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