Despite being deputy president, William Ruto's international network could be limited, a move explained by few trips he has made out of the country.
For over two years, DP Ruto has had only two trips, despite the fact that President Uhuru Kenyatta often assigns different people to represent him around the globe.
Last year, Dr Ruto visited Congo before having another historic tour to London where he delivered a public lecture and Chatham House in UK.
However, Ruto's planned visit to Warwick University was cut short, with State House recalling him back home on grounds that Uhuru was scheduled to visit Ethiopia.
Soy MP Caleb Kositany, who had accompanied him to the UK, said they had to call off the Warwick University engagement.
“I recall it clearly because we were to travel by road, a distance that would have taken us three hours. The DP had to call the Africa students leadership, which was headed by a Kenyan where he had lunch with them that Friday and promised them another visit,” he said.
Deputy President’s head of communications David Mugonyi denied that the DP has been sidelined. “I am not aware,” was his curt reply.
Last month, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i represented President Kenyatta in Mozambique to witness the historic signing of a peace accord between President Filipe Nyusi and the main opposition group, Renamo.
In April, Mr Odinga also represented the President at the burial of anti-apartheid icon Winnie Mandela.
In June 2018, Mr Odinga travelled to India where he held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Kositany argues that while it is the President’s prerogative on who represents him in foreign capitals, it would have been only procedural that the Deputy President was given a chance.
“I believe it is the DP who should be going for these events. Ministers are too busy with their dockets, but then again, at the end of the day, it is the President who decides,” he said.
Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja sees nothing odd in the manner in which the President is conducting foreign relations.
"There is a substantive Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other CSs engage based on their dockets. Mr Odinga engages as AU special envoy, who fortunately also happens to be Kenyan which further serves our interest,” he says.
But as the country's DP and a lead presidential aspirant, Ruto's foreign trips are important. It's not clear why Uhuru never gives him chances to travel out.
Any member of the cabinet must get permission from the president before travelling out of the country. Instead, Ruto has only intensified internal trips, with his most recent being coastal region.