How Ruto fought the Constitution but became its biggest beneficiary

During the campaigns to drum up support for the 2010 Constitution, President William Ruto rejected the draft, lost the battle but won the war when the new political dispensation was ushered in by the 2010 supreme law.

While serving as Agriculture Minister, Ruto had teamed up with the church to launch a countywide campaign leading the NO campaign but two years later, what he hated most protected his office when he became the first Deputy President.

In one of fate's cruel twists, when the old Constitution was phased out and replaced with a new set of laws, Ruto was a big beneficiary as he was elected as deputy president, meaning he was no longer serving at the pleasure of the president, and so could not be dismissed at his boss's whim. This is why even after the bromance between Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta soured, the best the Head of State could do was to sulk and rant but he could do nothing else.

Ruto had used his No campaign to introduce himself to the country, with political observers noting that his engagements on a national campaign thrust his name in the national arena.

Ten years after his unsuccessful referendum campaigns Ruto was sworn in as the fifth president of Kenya and second under the new Constitution in September 2023. The country watched and hoped as he swore at Kasarani how he was going to protect the Constitution he had campaigned against nine years earlier.

Ruto had pointed out that if the draft passed, the provision on devolution was "inadequate and a potential source of inequality and marginalisation of sections of Kenyans" and would require a referendum to amend.

He described the devolution structure provided in the draft as flawed. "When we agreed on the pure presidential system of government at Naivasha, we wanted it to go hand in hand with strong regional governments that would counter-balance powers of the presidency," he said.

Another reason he cited for opposing the draft was the provision on representation that sets the minimum number of people an area should have to qualify to be a constituency.

The Proposed Constitution then stipulated that there had to be at least 40,000 people residing in an area before it could be considered to be a constituency.

He feared that marginalized and sparsely populated areas would be affected, and the provision could lead to the scrapping of existing constituencies that fall short of the population requirement.

"Constituencies that risk scrapping on the basis of the formula provided by the draft will be between 26 and 46, mainly in sparsely populated areas in North Eastern Province, Upper Eastern and parts of North Rift. We must not pass any constitution that would further marginalize communities that have for decades been complaining of being sidelined," he said in one of his No campaigns.

On the issue of land, Ruto said the provision that gives Parliament the mandate to set the minimum and maximum acreage of land to  private citizens was another  possible source of friction.

Constitutional lawyers, a section of the political analysts and some of the politicians who were involved in coming up with the draft constitution and were members of Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution in Naivasha accuse Ruto of insincerity after the constitution making process and during his reign as the President.

People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader Martha Karua said Ruto was part of the PSC committee in Naivasha who later later lied to the members of the public about the bill. As president, Karua  says Ruto  has gone against his vow to protect the very document he uphold to protect when he was elected President.

“At some point, the PSC came up with five consensus which included the establishment of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to appease the teachers to support the Constitution while we borrowed heavily from the Medical Act a clause on abortion so to attract the church’s vote but even after Ruto agreed with us, I later saw him on television lying that the draft was against life,” Karua said.

She argues that Ruto alleged conduct of disobeying and mutilating the Constitution was because ‘he did not believe in it in the first place’.

“It is unfortunate that the person who swore to protect and obey the Constitution was the very person who did not believe in it and the very leader overseeing massive violation of the same. Under his tenure, the right to life has been violated after extrajudicial killings and policy brutality."

“It is under his regime that the right to property has been violated after massive land grabbing have been reported, right to education has been curtailed and right to education has been ignored,” Karua said.

She accused Parliament of surrendering its authority to the executive, a move she noted was against the spirit of the Constitution.

Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka believes Ruto was conflicted, and he has dismantled the Constitution.

“Ruto has offended the Constitution that protected his job even after his fall out with Uhuru, he has weaponized State agencies and gone against the document. He is not living as per the spirit of the Constitution,” he said.

He claimed the President had overseen massive corruption, theft of public resources, usurping the independent bodies and disobeying court orders to pursue what he deemed was right.

Kiroko Ndegwa, a lawyer who has been representing protestors accused of treason, said it was unfortunate for the country to have President Ruto at the country's helm.

"Ruto's continued violation of the Constitution means that he lives in the old era where the word of the Head of State was law. Were it not for the very document and competent judges who have protected the Constitution, the country would be run by a dictator," he said.

Political analyst and consultant Joshua Mwangi faulted the President for his actions of wanting the constitution celebrated for a single day saying he should commit himself to a rule of law on daily basis. 

 "It should be our lifestyle. We should live the constitution in our daily undertaking either government or individual citizens. The president needs to fully implement the Constitution, then Kenyans will have a reason to celebrate it," he said. 

"It is my opinion that the president wishes we never had the new Constitution. I feel he dreams of life with the old Constitution and it's like he wants to live his dreams, unfortunately with an enlightened society he finds it hard. We need to implement every provision of the Constitution. The Constitution needs full implementation not a day commemoration," he said.