When former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee hosted daughter Sarah Sanders — now incumbent —on his TV show, he asked her whether she ever thought of becoming governor when growing up.
Sanders said she would be lying to say the thought never crossed her mind. However, being a governor someday, she said, was far from what she dreamed of.
She thought of becoming a governor after her stint as President Donald Trump’s press secretary. Historically, children of presidents and other top leaders such as governors never fare well in succeeding their parents or rising to the same level of political success. The exception would be children of brute dictators who are shoved down the peoples’ throats.
For all accounts, former President Uhuru Kenyatta was not all that keen in following his father’s footsteps. When President Daniel Moi tapped him and attempted to shove him down our throats in 2002, voters resoundingly rejected the move. However, as I have consistently maintained, were Uhuru up against Raila in 2002, Uhuru would have been president.
When 2013 came around, Uhuru though publicly enthusiastic about vying again, many said in private that he was extremely reluctant to vie. In fact, he at one point offered to step down in favor of Musalia Mudavadi. Uhuru would later dismiss this as being the work of the devil and went on to vie and win.
Fighting an onslaught from the likes of former CS Fred Matiang’i and Uhuru aligned state machinery, William Ruto engineered a campaign like no other to not only beat back the onslaught, but to ride to victory in the August 8, 2022 polls to become Kenya’s fifth President.
His success is admirable and will be a case study for ages to come, though it is doubtful anyone would ever replicate it.
Some tidbits here and there in how to mount a stealth campaign and yank victory from jaws of defeat as he did but it is unlikely circumstances would ever be the same to have a deputy president defeat his boss.
There is no fallout between Ruto and his deputy but, were there to be one, Rigathi Gachagua cannot outwit Ruto and defeat his choice of successor come 2032. That was exclusively for Ruto in 2022 and will remain to be the only time in history.
Which begs the question, how long ago did Ruto dream to be president?
One can say when he was a youth leader during the early Moi era but certainly in 2007 when he was a member of the ODM Pentagon.
I have previously written about an occasion during the 2007 campaign when a good friend and now senator and I went to have lunch at Fairview Hotel. Not by accident, sitting at a gazebo next to us were the members of the Pentagon minus Raila.
At some point, my friend and I went over to the politicians to say hi. We engaged in some small talk and returned to our table. Looking at that table where the Pentagon members were sitting, I couldn’t help but observe to my friend Ruto being the youngest of them. “He must be doing the math and saying were each of the Pentagon members to be president one term each, it would be 20 years before he got a shot at the presidency”.
“If each did two terms as would be inevitable, double that to 40 years before he could get a stab at being president”.
Given that, I told my friend I could see Ruto figuring a shot-cut and he did.
Against his hardcore advisers and supporters, who would rather he “hangs” Raila, Ruto has extended an olive branch to the Azimio leader. This will not only ensure stability in the country, but will seal 2027 and have the president focusing on surprising the nation as I and others have predicted he will.
