Posted by Lenut Jan -
October 5, 2013 -
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William Kipchirchir Samoei arap Ruto (born 21 December 1966) is a Kenyan politician and the first Deputy President of Kenya. He was sworn in on 9 April 2013. He was the running mate in the successful Jubilee coalition ticket led by President Uhuru Kenyatta during the 2013 general elections. He is currently an accused suspect, by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for committing crimes against humanity. On 19 October 2010, he was suspended by the government on corruption charges. He had previously served in the Ministry of Agriculture since April 2008. Ruto was elected Director of Elections on 18 March 2002, when the National Development Party led by 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 Kenya African National Union lost to the National Rainbow Coalition coalition. He also previously served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reform in the 9th Parliament.
Ruto has been mentioned as orchestrating the 2007/2008 post election violence in Kenya.On 3 November 2010, Ruto flew to the International Criminal Court at the Hague to discuss an evidence deal with the prosecutor. On 15 December 2010, Ruto was named in a summons by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, in relation to his alleged role in violence which followed from the 2007 elections.
Ruto was born 21 December 1966 in Kamagut, Uasin Gishu to the late Mzee Daniel Cheruiyot and Mama Sarah Cheruiyot. He attended Kerotet Primary School for his primary school education then joined Wareng Secondary School for his Ordinary Levels education before proceeding to Kapsabet Boys, Nandi for his Advanced Levels. He then went on to receive a BSc(Botany and Zoology) from the University of Nairobi, graduating in 1990. He was ranked the best student in his class. He later enrolled for Msc in Environmental Science graduating in 2011. He is currently pursuing PHD degree from the same University.
Ruto was Organising Secretary of Youth for Kanu '92 (YK92), a group that was formed to drum up support for President Daniel arap Moi in the 1992 election.
In January 2006, Ruto declared publicly that he would stand 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 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).Ruto expressed his support for Odinga after the vote.[4] He resigned from his post as KANU secretary general on 6 October 2007.
The presidential election of December 2007 ended in an impasse. Kenya's electoral commission declared Kibaki the winner while exit polls had clearly placed Raila Odinga in front. Raila and ODM claimed victory. In a scene that has been replicated all over Africa, Mwai Kibaki was hurriedly sworn in as the president December 2007 presidential election. Following the election and dispute over the result Kenya was engulfed by a violent political crisis. Kibaki and Odinga agreed to form a power-sharing government. In the grand coalition Cabinet named on 13 April 2008 and sworn in on 17 April, Ruto was appointed as Minister for Agriculture.
On 21 April 2010, Ruto was transferred from the agriculture ministry and posted to the higher education ministry, swapping posts with Sally Kosgei. On 24 August 2011, William Ruto was relieved of his ministerial duties, and remaining a member of parliament. He joined hands with Uhuru Kenyatta to form the Jubilee alliance for the 2013 presidential election.
In December 2010, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced that he was seeking summonses of six people, including Ruto over their involvement in the 2007-8 electoral violence.[9] The ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber subsequently issued a summons for Ruto at the prosecutor's request. Ruto is accused of planning and organising crimes against supporters of President Kibaki's Party of National Unity. He is charged with three counts of crimes against humanity, one of each of murder, forcible transfer of population and persecution. On 23 January 2012, the ICC confirmed the charges against Ruto and Joshua Sang, in a case that also involved Uhuru Kenyatta Francis Muthaura Henry Kosgey and Major General Mohammed Hussein Ali.
He told the American government that the Kiambaa church fire on 1 January 2008 after the 2007 Kenyan general election was accidental.
The Waki Commission report stated in 2009 that "the incident which captured the attention of both Kenyans and the world was the deliberate burning alive of mostly Kikuyu women and children huddled together in a church" in Kiambaa on 1 January 2008.
The death toll was 17 burned alive in the church, 11 dying in or on the way to hospital, and 54 others injured who were treated and discharged.
William Ruto was on trial charged with defrauding the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) of huge amounts of money through dubious land deals, but he has been out on bond. The Constitutional Court suspended further hearing of the case due to complaints by Ruto that the prosecution was politically engineered. However, the High Court cleared the path for criminal charges against the Higher Education minister over the alleged sale of a piece of land in Ngong' forest to Kenya Pipeline Company Ltd. He was however acquitted of the allegations after a court declared him innocent.
In early 2009 after parliamentary debate on a maize scandal, Ruto was accused of illegally selling maize by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale. Fake documents bearing the National Cereals and Produce Board seal that linked Mr Ruto to the illegal sale of maize were rejected by Parliament’s deputy speaker.
William Ruto attributed the maize scandal allegations and claims of his involvement in corruption to the work of his "political enemies". All current evidence pointed to Prime Minister Raila Odinga office involvement in the maize scandal.
While Ruto and Odinga were both from the Orange Democratic Movement of the power-sharing government, they disagreed 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 campaigned for the constitution which won with a majority.
On 16 January 2012 the Law Society of Kenya(LSK) published skewed information on Ruto as one of the public officials have been mentioned adversely in various reports on issues ranging from corruption to economic crimes. LSK advised voters not to vote those mentioned in the report as they had previously compromised. Despite this negativity, voters overwhelmingly voted in favour of Ruto as a running mate to Uhuru Kenyatta on 4 March 2013. Ruto is currently the serving deputy president of Kenya.
He joined hand with Uhuru Kenyatta to form Jubilee Alliance together with Najib Balala and Charity Ngilu. He was chosen as the deputy president.
When the first round of the presidential election took place on 4 March 2013. Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the president-elect of Kenya by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. Raila Odinga challenged this in the Supreme Court of Kenya.He was one of the respondent by virtue of being deputy president elect. The supreme court dismissed the petition on 30 March 2013.
After the supreme court dismissed Raila's petition, the swearing in ceremony was held on 9 April 2013. Ruto was sworn in as Deputy President of Kenya. According to Article 141 of the constitution, in case the Supreme Court upholds the victory of the president-elect, the swearing in will take place on "the first Tuesday following the seventh day following the date on which the court renders a decision declaring the election to be valid." The event was held at Kasarani Stadium.
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