The much-anticipated president Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit to his deputy William Ruto’s home turf on Friday went down smoothly and in a way, it was not expected by many.
Uhuru's visit to Eldoret, Uasin Gishu county to relaunch Rivatex textile factory came at the time when 2022 succession politics had already taken over most of the country's political debates.
Uasin Gishu is the home of Dr Ruto and a section of his allies led by Kapseret Member of parliament Oscar Sudi and his Kesses counterpart Swarup Mishra. Governor Jackson Mandago is also believed to be behind Ruto’s rise to the presidency.
For this reason, 2022 politics were expected to take the centre stage as there have been reports of a cold relationship between Uhuru and Ruto despite Uhuru's earlier promise to endorse Ruto in his state house ambitions.
Political observers, analysts and many Kenyans expected Ruto’s allies to use the opportunity to remind Kenyatta of his promises during the 2013 and 2017 general elections.
However, every speaker who had an opportunity to speak avoided any politically related issue. Although some leaders who were expected to drop political bombshells like Elgeyo Marakwet county senator Kipchumba Murkomen did not have the opportunity to address the attendees of the function, governor Mandago and Sudi avoided politics and chose to focus on development agenda.
Ruto and Uhuru also did not say anything about the coming general elections. This left many who had anxiously waited for the event unanswered.
In my opinion, chances are high that the Deputy President had earlier warned his brigade against engaging in politics.
Ruto might have met the leaders in private and gave them instructions on how to behave during the event in order to please the head of state who has openly been against the ongoing 2022 political debates.