Deputy President William Ruto will be a man to watch when President Uhuru Kenyatta leaves the county for France in search of a loan for a road project. Ruto is constitutionally the principal assistant to the president and is expected to temporarily take over the mantle of leadership, however, the deteriorating relationship between the two leaders could result in unprecedented power play.
Uhuru is expected to leave the county on Wednesday, September 30, for Paris where sources indicate he will be signing a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) deal worth KSh 180 billion for construction of a 190km Rironi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Road.
Uhuru is scheduled to strike the deal alongside his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace where several other partnership deals would be discussed. This will be Uhuru’s first international trip since coronavirus pandemic hit the country in March 2020.
For the better part of Jubilee government’s second term, the president and his deputy have been reading from different scripts and are hardly seen in public together like they used to do during their first term in office. So frosty is the relationship that the DP boycotted the national COVID-19 conference presided over by the president on Monday, September 28.
The DP has in recent times calling out Uhuru’s government accusing it of massive corruption and forgetting about the common mwananchi. Kenyans are hence upbeat to see whether or not the president will hand over the mantle of leadership to his deputy when he leaves the country on Thursday.
Allies of Ruto are on record claiming the DP is hardly involved in the day-to-day running of the government. Kipchumba Murkomen who is a close ally of Ruto recently said during a TV interview that the DP has not been part of the government since 2017 General Election. Similar sentiments were expressed by Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi.
