Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto is due to be nominated on Tuesday by his new party to stand for the presidency in an August election after his public split with President Uhuru Kenyatta who is backing another candidate.
Ruto will compete with veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who has secured Kenyatta’s support. Kenyatta, who must stand down after serving the maximum of two five-year terms, says Ruto is not trustworthy and less experienced than Odinga.
Some Kenyans are concerned about the divisions because elections have sometimes sparked violence – notably in 2007, when Odinga’s supporters said his victory was stolen and a crackdown on political protests degenerated into clashes between ethnic groups.
But Ruto, standing with the newly created United Democratic Alliance, has sought to calm those fears, promising to accept the election outcome whichever way it goes, and asking all other candidates’ to make the same commitment.
Elections in the East African nation are closely watched; Kenya is the region’s richest and most stable nation and a close Western ally that hosts regional headquarters of international firms like Alphabet Inc and Visa.
Ruto, who served as a lawmaker and minister for agriculture before becoming deputy president, has sought to break through Kenya’s traditional patterns of ethnic voting by casting the election as a competition of poor “hustlers” against a wealthy political “dynasty”.
Critics point to corruption allegations against Ruto and a case against him at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for allegedly masterminding violence following the disputed 2007 election.
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