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Biggest ‘losers’ of William Ruto’s victory


The announcement and gazettement of William Ruto as President-elect will likely leave a trail of political heartbreak and casualties.

Here are some of them.

1. Uhuru Kenyatta – After a rosy start to life at the presidency, President Kenyatta fell out with his Deputy, now the President-elect. He then embraced opposition leader Raila Odinga and went on to support his presidential bid.

He went a step further and spent a significant part of his final year at State House urging Kenyans not to elect Ruto as he reportedly was a corrupt person. The relationship between the President and the President-elect at the time then turned into a dirty affair as the polls drew closer, with Ruto publicly suggesting Uhuru could harm his family, and the retiring President denying the same.

1. Francis Atwoli – The Central Organisation of Trade Union (COTU) secretary general, a close ally of retiring President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, severally declared in public that ‘Ruto will not be president of Kenya’ after the August 9, 2022 polls.

Not done, the trade unionist, whose job description puts him in charge of workers in Kenya, explained he fell out with Ruto owing to the President-elect’s reported financial dealings.

He campaigned against Ruto all over the country, while referring to him with not-so-pleasant names.

3. David Murathe – The political broker was the first in the inner circle of President Kenyatta to take the political war at Ruto’s doorstep.

Through him, several barriers were erected in the way of Ruto’s path to the presidency. He consistently fielded media interviews and made several claims against the person of Ruto while always insisting that a Ruto presidency was a pipe dream. The exact opposite happened.

4. Fred Matiang’i – The outgoing Interior Cabinet Secretary was a victim of circumstances when President Uhuru Kenyatta, via executive order, handed him some of Ruto’s functions including chairing Cabinet committees.

This brought him up against a determined Ruto and the duo exchanged not-so-pleasant words in public.

5. Hassan Joho, Charity Ngilu, Peter Munya – Raila Odinga, President-elect Ruto’s closest challenger, invested in these people to be the face of his campaign. In return, Ngilu, Joho, and Munya sacrificed their political ambitions to follow Odinga and were promised lucrative positions in Cabinet. This has not come to pass. Yet.