William Ruto: From chicken seller to becoming Kenya's President

Ruto, 55, was born in a small village in Kenya’s Rift Valley to a religious family. As a child, he helped plant maize and went to school barefoot. He was able to wear his first pair of shoes at the age of 15. Ruto also sold groundnuts and chicken by the roadside in the Rift Valley, BBC reported.

His popularity as a leader rose as he portrayed himself as the champion of the poor.

Ruto started his political career in 1992 under the dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi, who was a fellow Kalenjin from the Rift Valley. He was part of the ruling Kanu Party’s youth wing. Ruto was tasked with mobilising voters for Kenya’s first multi-party elections held in the same year. Five years later, Moi was re-elected and his protégé was elected to parliament at the age of 31. However, when Moi asked Ruto to groom Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president, as his successor, the seeds of discontentment were sown, according to The Economist.

In the 2007 election, with Kenyatta and Ruto on opposing sides, the country witnessed one of the worst ethnic violence in the history of independent Kenya. More than 1,000 people were killed in the rift between Ruto’s Kalenjin Tribal Federation and Kenyatta’s Kikuyu. Ruto and Kenyatta were charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, the two leaders forged an alliance and won the election in 2013. Kenyatta was chosen as the president, while Ruto served as his deputy. At the ICC, both cases collapsed as the two leaders denied charges and witnesses recanted or disappeared.

Later, the alliance between Kenyatta and Ruto fell apart and Kenyatta endorsed his former opponent, Raila Odinga, as his favoured successor.

Ruto became the first Kenyan politician to move beyond ethnicity and appeal to class. He is reputed to be a powerful orator. Ruto often starts his speech with "My friend", which helps him strike a rapport with voters. Ruto presides over a business empire which has luxury hotels, ranches and a huge poultry processing plant. Despite his wealth, he pitched this year’s election campaign as Kenya’s ‘hustlers,’ connecting with the young and ambitious people who are trying to make ends meet.