Kingmaker reduced to nothing

Deputy President William Ruto cuts a lonely figure with a palpable sense of betrayal. It’s easy to comprehend his position, given that he was promised support to the high office once President Uhuru Kenyatta finished his term.

The 10 years promised on public podium seem to have vanished like a sweet dream at the moment of waking up. Those he struggled to raise to the throne are hell bent to scuttle his ascendancy to the same.

Political analysts opine he should go back to the drawing board and re-structure an alternative path to the helm, but that is a joke. What he re-ally needs to do is to go to a carpenter and make the drawing board, literally. There is no drawing board.

The real bombshell that precipitated the current situation came in March 2018 when President Kenyatta ‘dumped his love’ and courted former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Things hurtled down south for the DP ever since. A glorious union turned into bondage in hell; the heir to the throne became the slave; the house Negro became the field Negro; a kingmaker reduced to nothing. Zero. Nada.

‘Lord of Poverty’

That ‘Handshake’ was done behind his back and the man he loathed and publicly referred to as ‘Lord of Poverty’ had outwitted him. The hustler King was baffled and infuriated but due to his position in government, he could not advertise his emotions.

When his trusted followers were hounded out of every influential office, there only remained a very narrow road to manoeuvre and get out of the rut. His instincts have led him to portray himself as the defender of the weak.

In this new role, he has also decided to clutch onto the spiritual and spew biblical homilies at every occasion. Biblical verses always come in handy when pushed against the wall.

‘Pastor’ Kipchumba Murkomen from the Tangatanga Tabernacle Team delivered this sermon from the Psalms of David on April 27: “As for my companion, he betrayed his friends; he broke his promises. His words are as smooth as butter, but in his heart is war. His words are as soothing as lotion, but underneath are daggers. Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you.”

The garrulous Elgeyo-Marakwet senator is a gifted intercessor. Perhaps the spiritual line may woo some sheep. God hears, God listens, and oh yes, God mends broken relations. He heals broken hearts and, like the poor wandering teacher writing in the sand found out in the desert, God delivers on his promises.

Bullied to obscurity

The tired phrase ‘God only helps those who help themselves’ does not exist in the holy book. It is coined from crude practical everyday existence. Perhaps, this explains the DP’s resolve to fight from within, as op-posed to past vice-presidents who were bullied to obscurity.

‘Buoyed’ by the Covid-19 graft scandal surrounding the ‘Handshake team’, Dr Ruto has metamorphosed from the second-in-command to the chief-activist, calling them out from the safety of his keyboard.

“The corruption ‘consultants’, brokers and conmen, some bankrupt in 2013, are now billionaires after looting while scapegoating William Samoei Ruto. Their overgrown impunity is shamelessly making them steal even from the sick in a pandemic. The end is nigh. Nowhere to hide. No more scapegoating,” the DP tweeted on Wednesday.

That, Dr Ruto is facing the biggest political fight of his life is a no-brainer. Will he beat the ‘Deep State’? All indications are that the ‘Handshake team’ are racing towards the ballot with the force of a bullet. Let ‘Tangatangans’ know it’s a race between a thoroughbred horse and a village donkey. Like the Pharisees, they have eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear.

It’s a long Marathon to 2022, but the DP is now forced to start the long race with a burst of sprint that he may never be able to sustain to the end. A man has been betrayed, and even though he is not the first one, his looks grander than the rest. Who can foretell the future? Who can trust the crystal ball?

Years shall go but the present is certainly fraught with bewilderment and uncertainty for the chicken-seller from Sugoi.

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