Americans gave up on Ruto as ‘an agent of positive change in Kenya’

Suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto (centre) moments after he was installed as a Sabaot elder. PHOTO/ FILE 

By NATION REPORTER
Posted Tuesday, March 8 2011 at 22:00

The US tapped former Higher Education minister William Ruto to help drive reforms, but dropped him after the first meeting.

This was top on agenda when assistant secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson came calling in May 2009.

Secret US cables also indicate the envoys wanted masterminds of post-election violence tried by a local tribunal rather than the International Criminal Court. They feared that a trial at The Hague “would simply indicate to the world that Kenya could not handle its own problems.”

The meeting with Mr Ruto was attended by Mr Carson, a senior director of National Security Council, Ms Michelle Gavin, and US ambassador Michael Ranneberger.

The trio concluded: “We do not expect Ruto to serve as a positive agent of change in the coming months.”

The assessment is contained in a secret cable that was written by Mr Ranneberger.

The visit was part of a large agenda to identify individuals who could be used by the US government to drive change.

For months, Mr Ranneberger threatened to impose travel bans on 15 officials whom he accused of blocking reforms.

The ambassador had sent a similar cable that day on Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, whom he described as “non-committal toward changing the status quo…(but) diplomatic enough to pay lip service to the reform agenda.”

Mr Ruto and Uhuru were two of the ministers issued with such threats.

Mr Ruto, who has been critical of Mr Ranneberger, must have seen it coming.

During the meeting, Ms Gavin had told him that “while the US wanted to help, the new administration would not do business as usual with those obstructing the reform agenda or inciting political violence.”

The meeting took place 17 days after President Kibaki wrote to the Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende nominating Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka for Leader of Government Business and chairman of House Business Committee.  

At the same time, Prime Minister  Raila Odinga nominated himself to the position, sparking a power crisis in the House.

While both Mr Carson and Mr Ranneberger told Mr Ruto that he was one of the political leaders who could make a “positive contribution by pushing for implementation of the reform agenda”,  they were surprised that he appeared “noncommittal” on police reforms and his contempt for the Waki Report — which had called for the setting up of a local tribunal — as “rubbish” and “unfairly incriminating.”

He also told the group that the coalition would survive the five years and described the row between the President and the PM over the Leader of Government Business as manageable. “It is simply about posturing”, Mr Ruto is quoted as saying in the cables.

Mr Ruto told the Americans that the real problem towards 2012 was not about the House Business Committee but the youth.

He said: “Youth perceptions of real and perceived inequality could give Kenya problems …not the House Business Committee in Parliament.”