William Samoei arap Ruto

Campaigners politicians and plotters have started the year with a flurry of activity: protests about electoral shenanigans in Congo-Kinshasa; demonstrations demanding the exit of Sudan's President Omer Hassan el Beshir; the governing Jubilee party in Kenya has started to splinter after top officials quit in protest at Vice-President William Ruto's plans to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta; and security forces killed two soldiers and arrested seven more after a failed putsch in Gabon...

Pointing to the multiple privileges and trappings of wealth that Kenyatta himself and his deputy William Ruto enjoy the MPs have vowed to disregard him and override his veto of the bill with a two-thirds majority...

But Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto have also been consummate spenders promising new roads to somewhere every month a laptop to every schoolchild (even in villages without electricity) free maternity care (even for those who can afford to pay for it) and cash handouts to the elderly regardless of income...

Deputy President William Samoei Ruto is no exception...

So much so that the ruling Jubilee Alliance could split over it — with one faction loyal to Kenyatta and the other to his deputy William Ruto...

In 1997 Odinga abandoned the robust pro-democracy opposition to join the Kenya African National Union (KANU) the political organ of President Daniel arap Moi's rule becoming its secretary general in 2002 supplanting the young William Ruto from the secretary general's seat – over which he has held a burning grudge ever since we are told...

Every politician in Nairobi has a favourite theory about the causes and consequences of the rapprochement between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga on 9 March and what it means for Deputy President William Ruto...

Speaking in Mombasa on 14 June he ordered a lifestyle audit of all senior public servants starting with himself and Deputy President William Samoei Ruto...

He has warned Deputy President William Samoei Ruto that the 'handshake' is real and he must stop loitering ('kutanga tanga') in the back alleys campaigning for the presidency in 2022 instead of working on the 'Big Four'...

The ambiguity of the arrangement could also spark fresh rivalries within the government between Odinga Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto who is already preparing for a barnstorming presidential campaign in 2022...

' Deputy President William Ruto has also ruled out allocating government positions to Nasa (AC Vol 58 No 22 A question of legitimacy)...

Odinga has made some concessions to alliance members but not enough to prevent some disgruntled politicians making overtures to William Ruto about joining his line-up for the 2022 presidential race...

These calls ended when William Ruto became the Deputy President...