President William Ruto’s government has launched a calculated, multi-faceted campaign against the residents of the Mount Kenya region, the very same people who voted for him in overwhelming numbers during the 2022 presidential election, and the betrayal could not be more glaring.
Ruto entered the 2022 race as the underdog. His competitor, the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, had the full backing of former President Uhuru Kenyatta and the weight of the state machinery behind him, advantages that should have made the contest a foregone conclusion. Yet against all odds, Ruto, powered by the unstinting support of the Mount Kenya region, dismantled Raila Odinga’s formidable machine and emerged victorious.
Let the truth be stated plainly. Without the Kikuyu community, William Ruto would currently be rearing chickens at his home in Sugoi, watching politics from the periphery. Their votes were not a contribution; they were the foundation of his presidency.
But Ruto has forgotten that debt as quickly as a warthog forgets yesterday, and he is now marching the Kikuyu community towards the slaughterhouse with a chilling sense of purpose.
Flanked by a loyal coterie that includes Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, UDA Secretary General Hassan Omar, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, and elements of ODM’s top brass, Ruto and his allies have been firing a relentless stream of tribal epithets directed at the very voting bloc that gave him power.
The bitter irony is that most of these leaders, now so eager to attack the Kikuyu community, brought absolutely zero votes to Ruto’s basket in 2022. Yet the president has not only cheered them on but is reportedly financing their campaign.
Political analysts, including blogger Cyprian Nyakundi, argue that what is unfolding is not accidental. Ruto, they say, is quietly dusting off the dangerous 41 vs. 1 mantra he helped engineer in 2007 under ODM, a strategy designed to isolate the Kikuyu community and pit every other tribe against them ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
As 2027 draws closer by the day, the walls are closing in on Ruto and his handlers, and the writing on the wall is becoming impossible to ignore. Some of his once loyal lieutenants appear to have already read it clearly.
Kikuyu Member of Parliament Kimani Ichung’wah has reportedly sought asylum in South Africa, quietly positioning himself for the dawn of the post-Ruto era that many now believe is inevitable.
