President Uhuru Kenyatta is on verge of losing his renewed fight against endemic corruption, a political commentator has observed.
US-based law scholar Prof Makau Mutua has noted that runaway graft threatens to sink Uhuru's legacy and has advised him to start cleaning his house from inside.
He said for the Head of State to win fight on corruption, he must first "clash" his deputy William Ruto, who according to Mutua, is the biggest obstacle to graft war.
"My free advice to Kenyatta is to throw caution to the wind and tame Ruto. That’s because Ruto and his brigade are dead set against the war on corruption," he noted.
In his weekly column published by the Standard, the SUNY Distinguished Professor opined it was an exercise in futility for Uhuru to issue threats and shout himself hoarse against looters, saying he will only emerge victorious if he politically neutralises his principal assistant.
"If Kenyatta doesn’t corral Ruto – and make him completely irrelevant – he will serve for ten years at the helm of the state but in actual fact write nothing on the sands of history. It will be akin to serving an unremarkable one term at State House," he wrote.
Mutua, who is eyeing the presidency in 2022, advised the Head of State to use his newfound unity with ODM leader Raila Odinga to get out of "Ruto's political jail' and secure his place in history.
"He needs to use the “handshake” to get out of Ruto’s political jail. For this, he must effectively leverage Raila," the columnist added.