To answer the above question, one need to start from the beginning in order to unbundle the three and their implications.
The BBI Amendment Bill 2020 that has just received overwelming support in parliament is a product of handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Premier Raila Odinga in March 2018.
Buoyed by intense restressness, Deputy President William Ruto did not hide his disdain for the handshake.
DP Ruto’s dislike for Uhuru and Raila friendship could be due to fears that Uhuru might have decided Raila will take over the leadership of this country in 2022.
If true, Ruto might have prematurely jumped into conclusion that he was being edged from a position he has been salivating for since his handshake with Uhuru Kenyatta prior to 2022 election.
Curiously, this Handshake led to him and Uhuru winning the Presidency.
Pushed by a 10/10 gentlemen agreement that is achored in no known law, Ruto had developed an entitlement mentality for the presidency than any known deputy in the whole world.
It is this impatience that has driven the DP to cobble together a team of leaders, especially from Uhuru’s political backyard to the chagrin of the president’s handlers.
Like a marauding beast, DP Ruto literally tore Uhuru to pieces in Mt Kenya by cunningly marshalling leaders to disparage the president at every given opportunity.
It is not lost to political observers that Ruto’s brigade in the Mountain region and Rift-Valley have campaigned to convince their people that Uhuru has done nothing for their regions.
In order to ‘finish’ Uhuru and Raila as well as disengage the people from the handshake and BBI, Ruto’s camp (Tangatanga) preached a hustler versus dynasty narrative in their political meetings.
The hustler is an idea whose motive is to capture the imagination of millions of struggling Kenyans. At first Ruto appeared as an unstoppable revolutionary.
His deep pockects added the icing on the cake as he single handedly buried Kenya under legal tender.
Ruto spared no one in need- tpmost were the churches which fell over each other to attract his attention for hefty donations.
Ruto ensured that he engineered his hustler movement with practical gestures.
Youths and women only needed to be organised in groups to receive wheelbarrows, sewing machines, vehicle washing equipments and other tools of trade.
The DP has promised the hustlers the ultimate donation in the name of Bottom-Up economic system.
In order for this system to receive support, Ruto has been trashing the current devolution system as an insensitive economic model that only benefits the rich.
Like bees onto flower petals, Kenyans especially in Ruto’s political backyard and Mt Kenya region appeared to swallow the bait, which motivated the DP to mudsling, badmouth and challenge his boss even more.
From 2018 to date, Dr Ruto and his allies have had a field day downplaying the handshake and BBI.
Even when Jubilee party cracked the whip and punished Ruto’s camp both in the party, parliamentary and Senate committees, this could not stop the DP.
The DP and team told those caring to listen that the ruling party Jubilee and indeed the government had been taken over by the Opposition.
Ruto told Kenyans that the government was no longer delivering on the evonomic promises to citizens because it had been rendered impotent by Raila.
Meanwhile, as Ruto and team trod the country like collossus, a small group of experts was quitely recaliberating the 2010 Constitution.
The team of eminent persons and experts eventually produced a template report on what Kenya needed to do in order to cast away the demons of tribalism, political and leadership exlusivity, winner takes it all after elections, uneven political representation, resources inequity and lack of ethos.
In order to appear not to disrespect the president. Ruto and team mastered the art of doublespeak on the work of the committee, thereby elevating hypocricy to a whole new level.
The first signs that Ruto’s camp was being outwitted by UhuRaila side is when the committee presented its report at Bomas of Kenya.
Ruto was forced to swallow humble pie by introducing the president to the podium to tell Kenyans what the report meant for them and the roadmap of amending some articles in the Constitution 2010.
Although Ruto and team appeared subdued at Bomas of Kenya, they were more than energised to indirectly oppose the process the BBI was to take after Bomas.
As Ruto and team continued to ignore clear signs about the BBI trajectory, the committee of experts embarked on the first step of amending the constitution through a popular process.
When the collection of signatures to achieve the 1 million threshold and trigger the process to draft a bill to amend constitution 2010 was going on, Ruto and team were entertaining the country with all manner of political comedy.
Within no time IEBC verified over 4 million signatures paving way for committee of experts to draft the BBI Bill for debate by County Assemblies. By then, the DP was so confident that few counties would pass the Bill.
To his consternation, Ruto woke up to the reality that not only did majority of county assemblies debate and pass the BBI Bill but among the counties that voted for the Bill were in his own Rift Valley backyard.
Disregarding common sense, Ruto and his team told Kenyans that the MCAs passed the BBI Bill after being bribed with Sh2 million shillings.
They also complained that the Bill had not been subjected to public partipation and therefore it was unconstitutional.
Suspicion still lingers that the petitions that are before the courts seeking constitutional interpretation on BBI Bill are sponsored by Ruto.
That as it may, the counties breathed life to the BBI Bill and it is now being debated in both Houses.
Parliament has already passed the BBI Bill with landslide, while it is is obvious the Senate will follow suit.
It is not lost to political observers that Ruto and team have unsuccessfully tried to scuttle all initiatives by Jubilee party, the President, Raila Odinga, the Committee of Experts, IEBC, Counties and now Parliament and Senate.
To say that such moves have been thwarted through a well orchestrated scheme by UhuRaila side of political divide is an understatement.
Ruto and team have been outshined in several by-elections, whereby the DP had tried to flex political muscle through UDA party.
Could these defeats be signs of how political formations might appear like as the country nears 2022?
Ruto’s UDA has only won one MCA seat in London Ward, Nakuru county and even then with a small margin.
As Ruto continues to describe UDA as a national movement, the more the party appears to take the shape and style of a regional party.
Former parties under NASA are successfully zoning off the country to stop UDA’s political activities outside Mt Kenya and Rift Valley.
It is instructive to note that politically, Ruto’s diehard supporters are dramatically deserting the second in command.
If voting for the BBI in the counties and parliament is anything to go by, Ruto must be very careful whom he politically associates with in Mt Kenya and from his backyard.
Several MPs from Rift Valley and Mt Kenya who were vocal against the BBI Bill voted YES to everyone surprise.
The DP’s apologists might ignore these signs but truth is Ruto is politically being cornered back to his political home turf.
The anti-Ruto’s forces are galvanised by fear and hartred for what he, the DP has been politically preaching to Kenyans.
Ultimately it appears that what Ruto has been fighting against is his biggest headache at the moment.
Who would have thought that populist Ruto of 2018 would be so helpless and isolated in 2022?
Although opinion could be divided on this one, there is no doubt a big plot is afoot to cut the DP to size politically.
Whatever the method or manner, Ruto’s political fate will mainly be decided by the outcomes of the handshake, BBI Bill and the referendum.
Kaunda wa Muchunku
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