William Ruto
William Kipchirchir Samoei arap Ruto is a Kenyan politician who has been Minister for Higher Education since 21st April, 2010 after a cabinet reshuffle. He is also the one of the two deputy party leaders of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). He had previously served in the Ministry of Agriculture since April 2008. Ruto was elected Director of Elections on 18th March, 2002 when the National Development Party (NDP) led by Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga merged with the Kenya African National Union (KANU). He was Secretary General of KANU, the former ruling political party, and he has been MP for Eldoret North Constituency since the 1997 Kenyan election a seat he won after trouncing the former M.P. The Late Hon. Rueben Chesire. He became an Assistant Minister in the Office of the President and was appointed Minister in charge of Home Affairs in August 2002 but lost the post after the December 2002 election, in which KANU lost to the NARC coalition. He also previously served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reform in the 9th Parliament. He is seen as a fast emerging powerful Rift Valley politician in Kenya's political arena.
Early life
Ruto was born 21 December 1966 in Kamagut, Uasin Gishu. He attended Wareng Secondary School for his Ordinary Levels education before joining Kapsabet Boys, Nandi for his Advanced Levels. He then went on to receive a BSc and MSc in botany from the University of Nairobi, graduating in 1990.
Political career
Ruto was Organising Secretary of Youth for Kanu '92 (YK92), a group that was formed to drum up campaign for President Daniel arap Moi in the 1992 election.[1]
In January 2006, Ruto declared publicly that he would vie 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 Daniel arap 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).[2] Ruto expressed his support for Odinga after the vote.[3] He resigned from his post as KANU secretary general on 6 October 2007.[4]
Although the December 2007 presidential election was officially won by incumbent Mwai Kibaki, the ODM challenged this, claiming victory for Odinga. After violent political crisis over the results, Kibaki and Odinga agreed to form a power-sharing government.[5][6] In the grand coalition Cabinet named on 13 April 2008[6] and sworn in on 17 April,[5] Ruto was appointed as Minister for Agriculture.[6]
President Mwai Kibaki and his Prime Minister Raila Odinga on April 21 2010 removed Ruto from the agriculture ministry, and transferred him to the higher education ministry, swapping posts with Sally Kosgei. [7]
Controversy
William Ruto is currently on trial charged with defrauding the Kenya Pipeline Company of huge amounts of money through dubious land deals, but he has been out on bond. The Constutional Court suspended further hearing of the case due to complaints by Ruto that the prosecution was politically engineered.[8].[9]
Maize(Corn)Scandal Anglo-Maizing
In early 2009 after parliamentary debate on a maize scandal , Agriculture minister William Ruto was cleared of all the allegations directed at him by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale (Public Accounts Committee Chairman) and not all the documents bearing the National Cereals and Produce Board seal that linked Mr Ruto to the illegal sale of maize were accepted by Parliament’s deputy speaker.
They included those from managers of the board allocating maize to some individuals allegedly on the strength of a call by Mr Ruto. Others included tables showing that the cereals board had in store 2.6 million bags of maize in June 2008 and those that allocated maize to companies and individuals that Dr Khalwale described as undeserving. Mr Ruto had informed the House that the maize in the stores at the time was 1.6 million bags. Mr Khalwale wanted to know what had happened to the one million bags. It also emerged that though Mr Ruto had announced reforms in which he claimed to have removed 14 of National and Cereals Board’s 17 managers, he at the same time appointed the managing director of a milling company allocated more than 600,000 bags of maize to NCPB’s board of trustees.Both the minister and the appointee when contacted denied any conflict of interest and said the appointment was in accordance with the law. William Ruto attributed the maize scandal allegations and claims of his involvement in corruption to the work of his “political enemies”[10]
New Constitution
While Ruto and Odinga are both from the Orange Democratic Movement of the power-sharing government, they disagree on the issue of the proposed constitution draft with Ruto calling for rejection of the draft in the upcoming constitutional referendum, arguing that some of its clauses are unsuitable while Odinga and Kibaki are campaigning in its favour.
Skills
William Ruto's skills include ethnic cleansing and corruption.
References
- ^ Daily Nation, 18 November 2002:He previously served as the Secretary-General for KANU following the party’s 2005 national elections till 2007 when he formally quit to join the Orange Democratic Movement Lobby groups resurface to cash in on election euphoria
- ^ "It's Raila for President", East African Standard, 1 September 2007.
- ^ Maina Muiruri, "ODM ‘pentagon’ promises to keep the team intact", The Standard (Kenya), 2 September 2007.
- ^ Daily Nation, 7 October 2007: Ruto abandons Kanu’s top post
- ^ a b "Odinga sworn in as Kenya PM", Al Jazeera, 17 April 2008.
- ^ a b c Anthony Kariuki, "Kibaki names Raila PM in new Cabinet", nationmedia.com, 13 April 2008.
- ^ Kenya's cabinet reshuffled IOL
- ^ The Standard, 2 July 2006: Litany of big money graft cases pending in courts
- ^ The Standard, 29 June 2004: Ruto now charged with Sh96m fraud
- ^ Daily Nation, 5 February 2009: [1], Maize scandal: The lies and the facts
Bibliography
- Daily Nation: 21 Jan 2006 William Ruto, 40
- Daily Nation: 22 Jan 2006: Guilty As Charged: Ruto Confesses His Ambition
- BBC News, Kenya's political punch-up
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