Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance is back to the drawing board after his favorite campaign rhetoric was turned into a laughing stock at a meeting in Muranga county on Tuesday. This was after Jubilee Secretary General torn into his bottoms up economic model terming it literally a person’s behind facing upwards.
Speaking in in Ndakaini during an event organized by artists to express gratitude to the government for waiving taxes on their Skiza tunes earnings, Tuju made a tongue-in-cheek remark wondering whether ‘bottoms-up’ refers to a person’s behind; “Lakini hii maneno ya bottoms up economy… Labda Peter Kenneth ungetafsiri… What is it in swahili? Matako Juu? asked Tuju.
The Deputy President’s supporters are furious with Tuju and have taken to social media to make their feelings known. This comes after ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi compared the Bottoms Up model using a water bottle analogy saying that the DP will eventually drink everything and leave none for the people.
Its not clear if William Ruto will continue using this narrative but he has a knack for turning political jabs by his opponents into campaign slogans. For example he made wheelbarrows his new party’s campaign symbol and adopted the “Kazi ni Kazi” moto after he was accused of donating wheelbarrows and encouraging the youth to take up manual jobs.
The Deputy President also incorporated “hustlers clerk” into his campaign after the Cabinet Secretary for Environment Keriako Tobiko referred to the Duputy President as just a clerk without real powers in government.
All these feed into the hustlers versus dynasties narrative which is the campaign mantra propagated by his allies who have christened themselves as hustlers to mean that they represent the downtrodden, while classifying the political wing led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga as dynasties.
