The 55-year-old has spent most of his life in politics serving the agenda of other powerful men. In 1992, a 25-year-old Ruto became a top official in the organization Youth for KANU ’92, which sought to drum up support for the ruling Kenya African National Union or KANU party and its domineering leader, President Daniel Arap Moi.

At the time, Kenyan politics had been dominated by two men. Jomo Kenyatta, a leading figure in the independence struggle against British colonial rule, led the country as its founding father from 1963 until he died in 1978. Along the way, he got rid of any potential challenger, such as his politically vocal first vice president, Oginga Odinga, who was fired and eventually replaced by the more cooperative Moi.

As Kenyatta’s vice president, Moi became president upon Kenyatta’s death and held a tight grip on power until protests forced him to hold elections in 1992. Moi won in 1992 and held power for another 10 years. Ruto, from the same small Kalenjin ethnic group as Moi and a member of the same evangelical Christian denomination, worked his way up as a protégé of the president.

When Moi retired and chose Uhuru Kenyatta, son of the former president, as his successor, Ruto remained loyal to KANU and supported its candidate. Uhuru, as he’s called to differentiate himself from his father, lost that race to challenger Mwai Kibaki. KANU basically fell apart, leaving Ruto in the political wilderness.

William Ruto

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