It was 1992 and the multiparty campaigns had pushed President Daniel Moi to the wall.
A group of lawyers had joined hands with opposition politicians to form a potent political movement whose aim was to end Moi’s 24-year rule using the ballot.
Nicknamed ‘the professor of politics’, President Moi was not ready to take it lying down and had to pull something out of his bag of tricks.
He sponsored an organisation called Youth for Kanu (YK) ’92 and brought on board two young men to help energise his campaign and deliver victory. One of them was Ruto, while the other was ‘Mr. Moneybags’ Cyrus Jirongo, who was known for dishing out KSh500 ($4) notes without batting an eye.
“He [Moi] identified me from the university where I was a worship leader and took interest in me. He introduced me to politics, groomed me and inculcated in me the culture of servant leadership,” Ruto told the vernacular TV
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