Ruto, who has served as deputy president since 2013, suffered a stunning defeat against his main rival, veteran politician Raila Odinga. The 55-year-old will become Kenya’s fifth president since the country declared independence. His party, the Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) coalition, also won a majority of seats in Kenya’s Senate, the upper house of parliament. It was through church leadership at the University of Nairobi that Ruto got his first taste of politics, meeting and campaigning for former president Daniel Arap Moi in the 1992 elections. “He (Moi) recognized me from university where I was a worship leader and took an interest in me. He introduced me to politics, groomed me and instilled in me the culture of servant leadership,” Ruto said in April, according to a report. in the local media. Ruto, who studied botany and zoology at university, later obtaining a doctorate in plant ecology, began to turn his interest in politics in the 1990s. In 1997, he took a gamble and ran for the Eldoret constituency parliamentary seat. North, which he won. He rose through the ranks and was re-elected MP in 2002. He was acquitted of corruption charges in 2011 and in 2013 stood trial alongside then-President Kenyatta at the International Criminal Court, accused of crimes against humanity for inciting ethnic violence after the 2007 election. However, the charges were later dropped. “There were predictions that we wouldn’t get here but … we are here,” Ruto said in his victory speech on Monday. The father of six, who is strongly religious, took the opportunity to recite verses from the Bible and praise God. “I want to confess that I prayed for victory,” added Ruto, who chaired the Christian Union in his college days. Ruto calls his supporters “hustlers” and describes himself as a “governor”. He has promised a break from the “dynasties” that have dominated Kenya’s political landscape since independence, such as the Odingas and Kenyattas. Odinga’s father was a former vice president and outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta’s father, Jomo Kenyatta, was the country’s first president in 1963. Odinga, a former prime minister and opposition leader, has spent a quarter of a century running for the presidency, running five times. He said this will be his last fight.
Bitter battle
It was a bitter battle to the end for the former enemies-turned-allies-turned-enemies-again. A row broke out, results were delayed for several hours and four out of seven electoral commission officials disputed President Wafula Chebukati’s results, calling them “opaque”. Odinga’s coalition rejected the results before they were even announced, but Ruto was eventually declared the winner with 50.49% of the vote. Odinga later doubled down, saying on Tuesday that, in his coalition’s view, “there is neither a legally and validly declared winner nor an elected president”. Ruto faced many obstacles on the way to getting Kenya’s top job. He first announced his intention to run for president in 2006, but lost his party’s nomination. Again, in 2013, he declared his candidacy for the presidency. But he put that ambition aside, joining forces with Kenyatta to form the Jubilee Party and running with him on a joint ticket. They emerged victorious in these elections and were sworn in as president and vice president in April 2013, for five-year terms However, the pair had a falling out in 2018 and while he retained the title of Kenya’s vice president, Ruto lost most of his powers and responsibilities. Kenyatta did not support him for the presidency, choosing Odinga instead. Ruto’s victory was not a strong mandate and he will be under pressure to provide solutions to Kenya’s pressing economic problems, such as mounting debt, high food and fuel prices and mass youth unemployment. Many disillusioned voters stayed away from the polls with turnout at 64.6% of registered voters, up from 79.51% in the 2017 election, according to the latest preliminary figures from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. Analyst Moses Odhiambo said Kenyans simply felt that both top candidates represented more of the same. “Among champions, people want to strike a balance between what’s perceived as continuity and freshness within a continuity,” Odhiambo said. “Ruto is the deputy president and part of the current government. There is a perception that Odinga could be an extension of the current president because of the support the president has given him.”
