By Alex Waikui-UK
William Ruto made a wrong judgment when he had a good chance to pick a running mate who could have at least shadowed and improved his dented public image.
Rigathi Gachagua will only accelerate the hemorrhage of votes that picked pace after the binary pact between UDA and the Mudavadi Weta parties was announced last week. UDA and Western will effectively control 80% of government appointments, with the rest of Kenya scrambling for only 20%. In particular, the Mt Kenya, whose votes Ruto is banking on to become president, was conspicuous by its absence.
Choosing a running mate was Ruto’s opportunity to sanitize himself by choosing a less tainted running mate to at least camouflage the gaping integrity deficit in his camp and to show himself as a truly national leader.
He failed the test lamentably.
Rigathi is a very divisive figure in Mt Kenya, and his time as a Gulag DO during KANU’s murderous Kleptocracy remains painfully ingrained in the minds of those Mt Kenya voters most likely to vote against UDA. They remember the bloody tribal slaughter visited on their kin in the Rift valley and DO Rigathi provides them with the opportunity to package him as the reincarnation agent of those bloody memories. And, of course, the Kiambaa church massacre is associated with another UDA supremo. It is to be expected that nasty campaign antics against Rigathi and Ruto will be coined against their tainted association with these heinous atrocities in the coming weeks.
Again there is the Mt Kenya internal politics. Nyeri and Kiambu have produced a president in Presidents Kenyatta Snr and Uhuru and President Kibaki. Choosing either Prof Kindiki, Muturi, or Ndindi Nyoro would have been less polarising and helped rally votes- especially among the Meru/Embu. Remember the vote rich Tharaka-Nithi famed for delivering a swelling basket of critical electoral numbers? With Rigathi, the opposite is now a more plausible outcome.
When the litany of errors leading to Ruto’s likely defeat is written, choosing Rigathi as running mate will feature prominently among those blunders.
I continue to hope in faith that no matter who wins the August election, that our country remains peaceful and becomes fairer especially for the millions of Kenyans struggling painfully under the weight of skyrocketing cost of living- while the gluttonous ruling class have both cake, honey and milk in infinite quantities.
