{"id":8960,"date":"2022-09-05T12:32:48","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T12:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/?p=8960"},"modified":"2022-09-05T12:32:52","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T12:32:52","slug":"william-ruto-is-one-of-the-countrys-wealthiest-men-but-has-long-portrayed-himself-as-hustler-in-chief-the-champion-of-the-poor-and-downtrodden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/?p=8960","title":{"rendered":"William Ruto is one of the country\u2019s wealthiest men but has long portrayed himself as \u201chustler-in-chief\u201d \u2014 the champion of the poor and downtrodden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aug 15, 2022 | Deputy President William Ruto makes a speech after being declared President-elect by IEBC\/DP<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defying corruption allegations going back years, the ambitious 55-year-old clawed his way to the centre of power by playing on his religious faith and humble beginnings selling chickens by the roadside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ruto\u2019s narrow victory in the August 9 election was upheld by the Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He had painted his election duel against former prime minister Raila Odinga as a battle between ordinary \u201chustlers\u201d struggling to put food on the table and the elite Kenyatta and Odinga \u201cdynasties\u201d that had dominated Kenyan politics for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe want everyone to feel the wealth of this country. Not just a few at the top,\u201d Ruto had said as he criss-crossed the country promoting his \u201cbottom-up\u201d economic plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The shadowy rags-to-riches businessman had effectively run as a challenger after a very public and acrimonious falling out with outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta, who backed Odinga for the top job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After he was declared winner by the election commission last month, Ruto had struck a conciliatory tone after his win, vowing to work with \u201call leaders\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere is no room for vengeance,\u201d Ruto said, adding: \u201cI am acutely aware that our country is at a stage where we need all hands on deck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IMG-20220905-WA0014-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8962\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IMG-20220905-WA0014-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IMG-20220905-WA0014-1-480x640.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 768px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aug 15, 2022 | Deputy President William Ruto makes a speech after being declared President-elect by IEBC\/DP Defying corruption allegations going back years, the ambitious 55-year-old clawed his way to the centre of power by playing on his religious faith and humble beginnings selling chickens by the roadside. Ruto\u2019s narrow victory in the August 9 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IMG-20220905-WA0014.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8963,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions\/8963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getufm.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}