Days after the Supreme Court of Kenya upheld the election results, the departing President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, has yet to greet his new successor, William Ruto.
Ruto claimed in a special interview with CNN that the departing president did not think it appropriate to congratulate him after he defeated Raila Odinga.
“I have won the elections that is what is important. Unfortunately, President Kenyatta has not seen it fit to congratulate me but I think that’s fine. Maybe he is a bit disillusioned, or maybe he is unhappy that I defeated his candidate. But that is the nature of politics,” he told CNN.
Asked about the essence of a peaceful election as witnessed in the last election, Ruto told CNN that Kenyans had become mature and its democracy was strengthening.
“I think it speaks to the heart of the maturity of the democracy of our country,” he said. No citizen, no leader wants their country to be famous for violence. We can go to an election, we can decide who our leaders are and the next day we can go back to work,” he added. That is the standard we have raised for ourselves as the people of Kenya, I am very proud of it.”
Ruto had previously mentioned speaking over the phone with both Kenyatta and Odinga. He added that he would continue to work with everyone, including members of the opposition, and serve as president of all Kenyans.
Kenya’s outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta had guaranteed that there would be a seamless transition of power yet he insisted that his leader will always be Raila Odinga.
Since 2013, Ruto had supported Kenyatta as his deputy president in two elections, promising that Kenyatta would support him again this year.
After violent post-election violence in 2007–2008, which mostly pitted the Kikuyu, Kenyatta’s tribe, against the Kalenjin, Ruto’s ethnic group, a political marriage of convenience was created.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) brought both men before it on charges of inciting the ethnic unrest.
In the end, the cases were dismissed, notwithstanding the prosecution’s complaints about a persistent campaign of witness intimidation.
But after Kenyatta linked hands with longstanding rival Odinga in a shocking political flip in 2018, Ruto was left out in the cold.
He came back with a campaign that was equally as critical of Kenyatta as it was of his opponent in the polls, blaming the government for the country’s economic problems and even charging Kenyatta with threatening him and his family.
