Kenya’s outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta is calling on his supporters to vote for opposition leader Raila Odinga in the country’s presidential election at the expense of his vice-president William Ruto.
Kenyatta, 60, who cannot stand for re-election on August 9, 2022, has called on his supporters to support his former rival Raila Odinga, to the detriment of Mr. Ruto with whom the outgoing president has fallen out.
Odinga, 77, who will be making his fifth attempt, will run under the banner of the Azimio la Umoja Alliance, made up of nearly ten parties.
The current president believes that Odinga has put the country’s interests first and he would be at peace to hand over the “torch of power” to the man who has been his political rivals for tens years.
There is no love lost between Uhuru and his vice-president Ruto, 55, the leader of the United Democratic Alliance, with whom he has been at odds since the president’s decision to bury the hatchet with long-term foe Odinga.
Convinced that his time has come, Ruto is determined to run for office even without the support of the ruling party’s electoral machine.
Many of those close to him have resigned from the government to strengthen his bid.
With nothing left to lose to the Odinga-Kenyatta machine, Ruto is counting on rallies to win the presidential election.
Between him and Kenyatta, it was above all a strategic alliance to escape the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The two political figures were convicted in 2012 by the ICC for the 2007 and 2008 post-election violence between the Kalenjin and Kikuyu ethnic groups, which left 1,200 dead.
But in 2013, they joined forces and won the presidential election against Odinga, prompting the ICC to dismiss the cases against President Kenyatta and his vice president in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
But the friendly terms between Kenyatta and opposition leader Odinga after the former’s re-election in 2017 changed the situation for Ruto, who lost the support of the president.
Thus Kenyatta became more inclined to support his rival of yester years, Odinga who became his ally, rather than his vice-president, who was considered “immature” and with whom relations deteriorated during his second and last term.
Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga symbolize the rivalry of two political dynasties that have ruled Kenya for decades.
Kenyans view these two political figures through “their fathers” Jomo Kenyatta and Oginga Odinga, who together founded and led Kenya in 1964 as president and vice president, respectively.
CD/fss/as/APA