President Uhuru Kenyatta declared Friday October 9 to Sunday October 11 as National Prayer weekend. The event will be taking place at State House and will be attended by President Kenyatta himself, his wife Margaret Kenyatta, Deputy President William Ruto and other dignitaries, politicians, members of the clergy and regular citizens from all walks of life. Whereas the top leaders in the country like the president did bring his wife, William Ruto’s wife Rachel Ruto is conspicuously missing.
There has been speculations going round social media and popular blog websites that William Ruto and his wife Rachel Ruto may be undergoing marital problems at the moment. William Ruto has been accused of beating his wife several times in the past. Whereas there has never been a smoking gun to substantiate such allegations, Mr. Ruto is far from being a saint.
On May 27, 2020, Rachel Ruto was featured on the front page of a Standard Newspaper with a questions: “Is Rachel Ruto in Hiding?”. This followed rumors that Rachel Ruto was physically assaulted by her husband deputy president William Ruto. The story was picked up by bloggers and citizens alike who went to social media to spread the rumors regarding domestic abuse against Mrs. Ruto.
Rumors had it that Cynthia Mwikali, who was the hotel attendant at Whitesand Beach Resort in Mombasa was the one who reported the domestic violence involving Deputy president William Ruto’s spouse. Since William Ruto owns the Whitesand Beach Resort, a story by an employee who works there alleging domestic violence involving Ruto beating his spouse can be seen as being a credible source of information.
That does explain the turn of events when two days after the story of Mr. Ruto battering his wife was featured in the mainstream media, a mutilated body of Cynthia Mwikali’s body was found in a bush. Whereas one cannot connect deputy president with Ms Mwikali’s death, the fact that she died a week after reporting the domestic violence is quite telling.
Around the time the story of William Ruto’s involvement in domestic violence surfaced, Kenyans went on Twitter to mock the deputy president. They started popular hash tags like #rutothewifebeater and many others along those lines. Just about any publications within a week starting on May 26, 2020 carried a story regarding the deputy president beating his wife Rachel.
Being the third National Prayer Day without Rachel Ruto attending, could it be that Rachel and deputy president William Ruto engaged in a fresh squabble between them? Very likely.
But the only thing is that workers at Ruto’s home will not reveal such a serious issue to the public lest they disappear and be discovered dead like Cynthia Mwikali did. So, that makes it difficult for the Kenyan public to ascertain whether Rachel Ruto is still experiencing physical and psychological abuses at the hand of her husband.
William Ruto’s marriage to Rachel Ruto has long been termed as an incompatible marriage. In 2017, Rachel Ruto was spotted kneeling and praying at several venues across the country for her husband William Ruto. Politicians such as the Emurua Dikirr MP Johanna Ngeno seized the moment and urged Rachel Ruto to divorce her husband who was giving her sleepless nights due to his transgressions.
“The other day your wife Rachel was praying in churches kneeling down asking that you be forgiven. She prays today, tomorrow you are sinning..why can’t you sympathise with her?”, asked Johanna Ngeno.
“I had written an SMS to Rachel telling her you better leave your husband now until elections are over because he will take you to hell,” he added amidst cheers from the crowd.
