As a journalist working in Kenya, one cannot ignore Deputy President William Ruto. He is the second most powerful politician after President Uhuru Kenyatta. Ruto is, as a good reporter might write, a heartbeat away from the presidency.
But Ruto has reshaped the Number Two perch. Unlike the defunct office of Vice President under the old Constitution, Kenyans are for the first time seeing a principal assistant to the President who is entirely his own man, speaks his mind and is not shy about his burning ambition to occupy what Nairobi scribes like to call the house on the hill come 2022.
It is impossible for the media to ignore a politician with the energy and zeal of Ruto. The bulk of Kenyan news is about events. And Ruto is very good at staging those. His diary is always full: church fundraisers, visits to schools, launch of development projects, funerals, thanksgiving ceremonies, anniversaries, tours of one kind or the other around the country and so on.
It is therefore not surprising to see his name and face nearly every day in the news. He cuts the image of a politician fully on the ground and in touch with the people.
Ruto has a tireless media team, including bloggers. His minders appear to have settled on the strategy that he must be in the limelight, whether the media coverage is positive or negative. Under this approach, all efforts are made to ensure Ruto is in your face. You can like him or hate him. But you cannot ignore him.
But Ruto makes the headlines even when he is silent and doing nothing. Other politicians would be talking for him or about him. Or some clever reporter would be trying to figure out what the DP is up to in his silence.
Ruto often engages the media directly, firing tweets that berate media houses and journalists for their reports on him he doesn’t like. He usually dismisses those reports as fake news but without any attempts to tell his side of the story.
“Is DP Ruto a student of Trump on Twitter?” said a report on Citizen Digital on October 3. “The Deputy President’s responses to Kenyan media have been compared to that of U.S. President Donald Trump. Negative stories touching on the DP have in the past seen media companies called out on his twitter page,” the report said.
If there is a newspaper that can be said to be a keen Ruto watcher, it is The Star, the paper that once claimed to be read by smart people. Perhaps the editors and writers at Lion Place find him quite fascinating. Or they have a hidden agenda, as Ruto appears to suspect, that is yet to come to light.
Hardly a week passes without a splash on Ruto in the Star. Take last week: “Ruto troops retreat to Kajiado to plan for BBI” (Tuesday, December 3); “Ruto MPs plot hijack of BBI via Parliament” (Wednesday,, December 4); “Ruto MPs force Uhuru team to cancel BBI meet” (Thursday, December 5); “66% unsure Uhuru will back Ruto – poll” (Friday, December 6).
Those are four consecutive Ruto headlines in five days.
Some of the Star stories about the DP sometimes leave readers puzzled. The Tuesday splash said Ruto’s men had retreated to Kajiado to plot something about the BBI report.
“The Star has learnt that the meeting at Maasai Lodge in Kajiado county from Friday to Saturday this week will bring together elected leaders, professionals, religious and opinion leaders”, the paper said.
But the paper had a different online story on the same meeting titled, “Ruto troops retreat to Naivasha to plan for BBI.” This version said:
“The Star has learnt that the meeting in Naivasha from Thursday this week, will bring together elected leaders, professionals, religious and opinion leaders.” No explanation for this variation in dates and the venue for the “troops” meeting.
The Observer will ask him about it one of these days (when we, hopefully, get a chance to chew a cob of roast maize with him on the roadside in Kawangware). But it looks certain the DP – despite his posture to the contrary – enjoys the media’s fixation with him.
