…No room for vengeance- Ruto
Kenya’s vice president William Ruto has been elected the fifth president after polling 7 176 141 votes in a tight election race which saw his counterpart Raila Odinga polling 6 942 930 votes.
After five days of waiting patiently Kenya’s electoral managing board announced Ruto as the winner.
A hustler who became a president
William Samoei Arap Ruto was born 21 December 1966 and has been Kenya’s deputy president since 2013.
In the 2013 presidential election, Ruto was elected the Deputy President alongside incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta under the Jubilee Alliance ticket.
Ruto was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1998 to 2013. He served as Minister for Home Affairs in the Daniel Arap Moi administration from August to December 2002. He later served in the Mwai Kibaki administration as Minister of Agriculture from 2008 to 2010 and as Minister for Higher Education from April to October 2010.
Ruto was born in Kamagut, Uasin Gishu to Daniel Cheruiyot and Sarah Cheruiyot. He attended Kerotet Primary School for his primary school education then joined Wareng Secondary School for his Ordinary Levels education before proceeding to Kapsabet Boys, Nandi for his Advanced Levels. He then went on to receive a BSc (Botany and Zoology) from the University of Nairobi, graduating in 1990.
Promoting what he calls a hustle nation, Ruto declared that he makes Sh1.5 million every day from the sale of eggs from his 200 000 chickens.
Ruto also holds 400 000 Safaricom shares and 80 000 Kenya Airways shares.
“They could have added that in that my poultry business, I have 200,000 chickens and that I get 150,000 eggs daily which earns me Sh1.5 million daily,” Ruto told the Nation newspaper while declaring his assets.
Before joining politics Ruto a member of Christian Union where he served as Chairman. He was ranked the best student in his class. He later enrolled for MSc in Environmental Science, graduating in 2011. He is currently pursuing a PhD from the same University.
Political history
Ruto was Organising Secretary of Youth for Kanu ’92 (YK92), a group that was formed to drum up support for President Daniel arap Moi in the 1992 election. In January 2006, Ruto declared publicly that he would stand for the presidency in the next general election, scheduled for December 2007. His statement was condemned by some of his KANU colleagues, including former president Moi.
Ruto sought the nomination of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) as its presidential candidate, but in the party’s vote on 1 September 2007, he placed third with 368 votes, behind the winner, Raila Odinga (with 2,656 votes) and Musalia Mudavadi (with 391). Ruto expressed his support for Odinga after the vote. He resigned from his post as KANU secretary general on 6 October 2007.
The presidential election of December 2007 ended in an impasse. Kenya’s electoral commission declared Kibaki the winner while exit polls had clearly placed Raila Odinga in front. Raila and ODM claimed victory. In a scene that has been replicated all over Africa, Mwai Kibaki was hurriedly sworn in as the president December 2007 presidential election.
