Inside the rift that ended the Raila, Ruto bromance

After the controversial 2007 General Election, which saw Mwai Kibaki hastily crowned President, the relationship between the late Raila Odinga and President William Ruto gradually took a nosedive.

Once bound by camaraderie and political bromance after forging a fierce working relationship in 2005, both men—equally passionate, strongly opinionated, and with cult-like influence on their followers—had been a force to reckon with.

The two leaders first crossed paths around 2001 when Raila Odinga dissolved his National Democratic Party (NDP) and merged it with KANU, then the ruling party.
In 2005, Raila and Ruto joined forces once more, this time rallying under the Orange banner during the constitutional referendum.
Their shared passion for reform and grassroots mobilization strengthened their partnership and set the stage for the 2007 General Election.

President William Ruto, then considered Raila’s right-hand man, played a critical role in delivering the vote-rich Rift Valley region, which overwhelmingly supported Raila’s bid to unseat Mwai Kibaki.

When the election turned into a circus over alleged electoral malpractice, Ruto was at the forefront of demanding an honest and candid review of the results—actions that would later land him in trouble with the International Criminal Court for his alleged role in the 2008 Post-Election Violence.

In his tribute to Raila, published by The Standard on Thursday, President Ruto recalled:

“It was after 1997 that I got a chance to work with Odinga in tightening the working cooperation between NDP and KANU. It was immediately clear that we had a number of fundamental characteristics in common—his energy, sharp focus, total commitment, and unstoppable motivation in pursuing what he believed in.”

But it was these very similarities that would later form the fault lines that broke their friendship.
The most defining rift came in 2009 over the Mau Forest restoration exercise.

The Mau Forest, a critical water catchment area, had suffered massive destruction due to human settlement.
The occupation of the forest dated back to 1979 but intensified in the 1990s when the World Bank encouraged the settlement of the Ogiek community. However, political interests soon took over.
This led to parts of the Mau Forest being de-gazetted and distributed among various beneficiaries, including the Ogiek, squatters, and a handful of powerful individuals.
The allocations were reportedly done through the Provincial Administration.

Although the restoration exercise, estimated to cost Sh37 billion, had begun in 2005 during Kibaki’s first term, Raila’s decision to take charge of it as Prime Minister became the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
Then-President Mwai Kibaki tasked Odinga with overseeing the eviction and regeneration of the forest while he himself maintained a low profile on the matter.

“I urge the Prime Minister to do all he can to reclaim the forest lost to private individuals and developers,” Kibaki said in August 2009.

Political pundits argue that this decision cost Raila Odinga the vote-rich Rift Valley in the 2013 General Election.
Many Rift Valley leaders then elected to Parliament under the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) viewed Raila as a hypocrite over the evictions, since he had promised during the 2007 campaigns that no such evictions would occur.
Critics claimed that Raila had turned against the very people who had voted and even died for him.

Nonetheless, Raila and members of the Executive pushed for the evictions, showing hesitation toward compensation.
Raila’s team argued that settlers in other forests, such as the Aberdares, had been evicted without compensation and that Mau settlers would not receive special treatment.
Ruto, however, called out the Kibaki government for its failure to compensate previous evictees, saying, “Those evicted should never have been left by the roadside.”

At the time, Ruto—then Eldoret North MP and a rising kingpin of the Rift Valley—warned that he was ready to sever ties with Raila Odinga if the government proceeded with the mass evictions.
Dr. Ruto was of the idea that those evicted from Mau Forest ought to be compensated if they were to be evicted.
He also said that the Mau issue had vilified the Kalenjin community to paint them as land grabbers and dishonest people.

“There is a systemic campaign to portray the Kalenjin as thieves, land grabbers, and people responsible for drought and famine,” Ruto said.

The outcry by the Rift Valley MPs saw former President Uhuru Kenyatta enter the Mau Forest debate, cutting the image of a low-key defender.
Kenyatta, who then was the Finance Minister, said he was working to find funds to compensate settlers who had legal title deeds and that the eviction would be done in a humane way.
The decision to compensate legal title holders was part of a Cabinet resolution.

“The government intends to compensate Mau settlers. We won’t forcibly evict settlers, and the government will ensure the process is as humane as possible,” Kenyatta said.

But despite the agreement to compensate the settlers, the matter remained a source of bile between Raila and Ruto.
The disagreement continued to spiral, with leaders in Rift Valley snubbing the PM during one of his visits to the region.
MPs from the Kipsigis community, including Cabinet Minister Franklin Bett, issued a statement after Raila’s visit, claiming that Raila had chosen to work alone—terming the move disrespectful to the region’s leadership.

The growing rift roped in leaders within Raila’s circle who pushed for a truce to save the then-formidable Pentagon formation.
Leaders said the differences between the two leaders were an acid test to the party’s unity.

“The wrangling leaders should know that ODM has unfinished business. We started a journey, and we have not finished it. We need each other to reach the destination,” Charity Ngilu, then serving as Water Minister, said in August 2009.

But Odinga, in response, said he was ready to pay the political price of helping change Kenya.
In an interview with KTN on August 19, 2009, Raila hit out at Rift Valley leaders, noting that issues of conservation must not be politicized.

“I have been a victim of propaganda by vested interests. Kenya is more important than an individual. If I am to pay the price to conserve the environment, let it be,” Raila said.

A decade later, in 2019, Raila and Ruto were still trading barbs over the Mau evictions.
Raila even took credit for the renewed conservation efforts, saying his handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta made them possible.

“I said then that I was ready to pay the price for protecting the Mau Forest. I told Kenyans that I was ready to go and sell mandazi in Kibera, and I’m glad evictions were done,” Raila said in 2019.

Some argue that the Mau Forest controversy permanently redefined the relationship between the two, setting them on opposite political paths for years to come—until 2023, when Raila forged a working relationship with the Ruto administration in the wake of the Gen Z protests.
Even then, political observers say their relationship remained lukewarm until Raila's demise on Wednesday while under medication in India.