President William Ruto was very keen on being the Third In Command in ODM leader Raila Odinga’s government had he won in 2007, Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has revealed.
He says that Ruto, then an ally of Raila, a member of his Pentagon Alliance and his campaigner, was keen on landing the Prime Minister position if Raila won.
He reveals that Ruto hoped that this position would make him the third most powerful man in the country after Raila and the Vice President.
He reveals that this is among the reasons that made Ruto start scheming his exit from Raila’s camp after he lost to President Mwai Kibaki and ended up being himself the Prime Minister.
The former Member of Parliament for Garissa Township reveals that even after Ruto shifted his hoped to the Deputy Prime Minister seat, he still didn’t get it, after it ended up with Musalia Mudavadi.
“But when Raila put names and faces to the dockets, he picked Mudavadi as Deputy Prime Minister, Ruto as Agriculture and made me an Assistant Minister for Livestock Development, favouring Mohamed Elmi instead as the minister for Development of Northern Kenya.” he writes in his book ‘For The Record’.
He adds that Ruto and those in his corner were also unhappy with the ministerial posts Raila bargained for after landing the PM slot, and found them weak as Kibaki remained with the powerful ones.
“Raila went to Sagana with Dr Mohamed Isahakia only to find Kibaki sitting with a trusted adviser and Head of the Public Service Francis Muthaura and Dr Romano Kiome,” he further writes.
Some of the ministries Raila landed were Local Government, Roads, Immigration, National Heritage, Cooperatives, Youth and Sports, Higher Education, Tourism, Agriculture, Medical Services, Water and Irrigation, Regional Development, Northern Kenya, and Arid Land and Public Services.
