William Ruto calls himself a ‘hustler’, and he is. He is a self-made political leader who has effectively created the perception that he is the defender of all interests 'Kalenjin' by ‘owning’ the grievances committed against the community over the years.
He has then crafted himself into the custodian of the solutions to these grievances. The result is that he has become a tremendously powerful politician with a firm hold over a large section of the Kalenjin vote.
He has leveraged this role quite efficiently to the extent that he is recognised as a national leader. He has also become the undisputed leading ‘king-maker’ for the forthcoming general election.
Uhuru Kenyatta, on the other hand, is anything but a hustler. Unlike Ruto who can credibly identify with the average Kenyan struggling with economic aspirations, Uhuru represents a family that possibly owns the most land in Kenya.
This makes him the direct opposite of a hustler. While Ruto is a self-made politician, Uhuru would not be what he is were he not a Kenyatta.
His late father’s resources and networks have been instrumental in getting him to the pinnacle of his political career. This is not wrong, except that Uhuru - dishonestly in my opinion - wants Kenyans to judge him as his 'own man’. Finally, unlike Ruto, he cannot claim to be the ‘owner’ of the Kikuyu community’s grievances.
However, Uhuru learns well from others and having watched how quickly the ‘tribal chieftain’ tag can catapult someone to national power, he has 'copy pasted' what he has seen Ruto do and say.
He stated as much in Murang'a when he explained that the time had come for Kikuyus to learn from what Ruto has done with the Kalenjins, and accept to toe the line under one community leader. He has moved extremely fast to achieve this end.
Uhuru first established The National Alliance party (TNA). TNA then declared that any Kikuyu who wants to be in political office next year must leave any other party and join TNA under Uhuru.
With his resources, Uhuru has managed to do what it took Ruto more than seven years in Rift Valley less than one year to do in Central.
He even went to the extent of disinheriting President Kibaki while the President was in office, unlike Ruto who waited until Moi had retired.
Today Kibaki finds himself without a party as his term at State House comes to a close. PNU has been dissolved into TNA and all the non-Kikuyu PNU leadership have had to find their political homes in other parties.
Now Uhuru has an 'offer' for Ruto. He wants to cut a deal with the self-made politician so that Ruto's ‘DNA becomes TNA’, and Ruto shelves his political ambitions so that Uhuru can become a strong presidential challenger to Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
However, for this 'deal' to work, Uhuru must offer Ruto something the latter can take back to the Kalenjin to convince them that Uhuru has the community's best interests at heart.
This is where the rubber meets the road. If you were to stop a Kalenjin primary school child in the street and ask her what the interests of the Kalenjin community are, she would immediately tell you it is all about land.
This same child would also tell you that the Kalenjin land problem has Kikuyu fingerprints all over it, starting from Jomo Kenyatta’s era. She would then tell you, for free, that the only way Ruto can convince the Kalenjin to vote for Uhuru is if the Deputy Prime Minister has an answer to the 'Kikuyu Question' in Rift Valley.
Uhuru's political stronghold in Mt Kenya has land issues, but they are intra-ethnic, not with other communities. However, in Ruto’s Rift Valley stronghold the land problem is between Kalenjins and close to one million Kikuyus who live there.
This basically means that the people falling over themselves in the Mt Kenya region to pledge allegiance to Uhuru will not be affected by whatever offer their man gives Ruto.
It is the 40 per cent Kikuyus living outside the Mt Kenya, especially those in the Rift Valley, who are vulnerable to any such deal, especially if it touches on land. They are also the ones who would 'pay' should Uhuru then default on whatever they agree, if he gets into State House.
For the sake of peace and long-term inter-ethnic cohesion, especially in the Rift Valley, could Uhuru make public whatever ‘offer’ he has made Ruto in return for Kalenjin support?
Could the Kikuyu leadership from Rift Valley also ensure they are involved in whatever talks are going on between Ruto and Uhuru to ensure that no one ends up ‘negotiating away’ their land rights? Finally, could this openness apply to all 'deals' cut between all presidential candidates?
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