Veteran journalist and political commentator Macharia Gaitho accused Deputy President William Ruto, of having become a bitter man following President Uhuru Kenyatta's continued silence on the political future of the Jubilee Party.
On his opinion piece for the Daily Nation on Tuesday, November 19, Gaitho narrated that the recent bursts of anger by the deputy president was a sign that he was slowly being pushed to the corner.
Highlighting the Sagana State Lodge meeting, where President Kenyatta held a sit-in with leaders from the Mt Kenya region, Gaitho noted that MPs allied to the deputy president were deliberately locked out of the podium due to their political stance, with the president steering clear of political overtones all through.
"Ruto has obviously been trying to concoct a positive spin following the Sagana meeting, taking it as an affirmation of Jubilee unity and of President Kenyatta's commitment to the powersharing and succession deal," Gaitho wrote.
In his opinion, however, the president did not make any formal declaration on the future of the succession pact between his Jubilee party and the deputy president.
"The president's address meandered and beat about the bush with no conclusive diktat on key, contentious issues. The fact that different groupings can spin their own versions and get away with it is in itself telling. The point is that there was no Sagana declaration," Gaitho wrote.
The veteran journalist further argued that Ruto's woes were compounded with the defeat of Jubilee's candidate in the Kibra by-election McDonald Mariga by ODM's Omran Okoth.
During the Sagana State Lodge meeting, Uhuru had made clear his satisfaction with the way the by-election was conducted, terming it one of the most peaceful he had ever seen in the constituency.
This was the complete opposite of DP Ruto's rant where he had dismissed ODM as a party that adopted underhand tactics, including violence, to bag the Kibra seat.
Ruto had called upon the ODM leader Raila Odinga to apologize for the alleged violence meted on Jubilee Party agents and legislators who went to oversee the elections in Kibra, which is widely considered an ODM stronghold.
Gaitho stated that Ruto's attempts to create a positive spin portrayed him as a bitter man who was unwilling to accept defeat and move on.
"The twitter tirades, seemingly hurried through and posted with typos and clumsy grammar unbecoming of the usually punctilious deputy president are indicative of a man feeling the heat," Gaitho concluded.
