The old adage that there are no permanent enemies of friends is now abundantly clear in Kenya’s political scene where yesterday’s foes are now bedfellows while hitherto friends cannot see eye to eye.

During the campaign season in the 2022 General Election, both President William Ruto and his running mate, Rigathi Gachagua had no kind words for their chief enemy, Azimio la Umoja Alliance, Railaia Odinga who was opposing their ticket.

From branding him ‘plan-less’ to claiming that he does not mean well for the country, to accusing him of sabotaging the economy to bring their administration down, Gachagua vowed to lay ‘traps’ in State House to keep Raila away.

And it got worse for government when Raila and his camp led demonstrations for several weeks in 2023 to condemn the high cost of living and raise other grievances that they felt needed urgent intervention. His business premises Spectre International was attacked, and his car sprayed with live bullets leading to claims of an assassination attempt.

Fast forward to 2024 and the Gen Z revolt, which also marked a significant shift in politics, after it emerged that Ruto and Raila were to form a broad-based government to among other issues, unite Kenyans.

Time has moved and the dalliance between the two has continued to grow, with Ruto playing a major role in campaigning for Raila in the African Union Commission (AUC).

The last few months have seen good working relations between Ruto and Raila, with critics arguing that the President has given the country to the opposition while others pointed out the sudden interest for parties to reach out to Raila and work with him in coming days.

Today, Raila has nothing but praise for Ruto, who supported him in the AUC journey and joined together to form a broad-based government.

“We have now come back to be with you. I want to thank again my younger brother Ruto, who stood by me. He never asked me to run, I announced myself that I’m to run for the chairperson of AU,” said Raila on Monday at State House, Mombasa.

As he held consultations with the President, Raila indicated that he would hold further consultations with his friends and other stakeholders on the state of affairs and make a major pronouncement in the coming days. Five of Raila’s men from ODM are cabinet secretaries. Another seven senators are serving as committee chair.

With the turn of events, both Ruto and Gachagua have for several months now softened their stance on Raila and are seemingly geared towards working with him.

Ruto started by appointing key members of ODM to the Cabinet, a move which sparked mixed reactions.

The President said that forming a broad-based government brought together former political rivals into one selfless, patriotic team, to unlock the potential of the country long been denied by factional and sectarian competition.

“Our potential as a nation and the attainment of that potential has often been undermined by divisions arising from political competition. Where Kenya is today, while competition is healthy and good, there is a moment where the interest of a nation is greater than the interest of a political formation,” said Ruto last August when new Cabinet Secretaries, majorly from ODM were sworn in.

“This is such a moment and it is the reason why I have reached across the aisle to bring on board the knowledge, expertise, and experience of deserving Kenyans, though belonging to a different political formation,” he added.

On Monday, Ruto said he closed ranks with Raila to collectively focus on addressing challenges facing the country, even as he called on all leaders to work together for the sake of the people.

“Issues affecting Kenyans require a collective effort. That’s why we have closed ranks to serve the people. The political goodwill we have in the country through the broad-based government is greatly helping implement programmes that will improve people’s lives,” Ruto said.

“The things that require our collective effort as an administration that is now broad-based there is every reason for us to accelerate the momentum for the delivery of the things that will transform the nation. We need all hands on deck to be able to achieve this mission and vision,” Ruto said.

Gachagua, who is the biggest loser of the rapprochement has made a drastic about-turn and softened his previous hard-line stance on Raila.

In an interview with KTN on Monday night, Gachagua declared his admiration for Raila and how he has effectively run ODM for 20 years.

“I admire Raila and ODM, we have had problems with Raila but give it to him. He crafted a very serious political machine that has been there for 20 years. The quality of leaders that they elect under ODM are admirable,” he said.

He added  “In fact, I will be going to ODM for benchmarking. I must talk to Raila. I must ask him how he crafted that machine, how he has kept it going for 20 years, ODM is admirable. I have two years to craft a very serious political machine.”

Asked whether he can work with Raila, Gachagua said he is open to working with anybody who means well for the country.

“I want to take this opportunity to tell supporters of Raila from Nyanza that they should not fight the mountain because we are not their enemies at all.  We have a problem with Ruto, we have no problem with Raila and ODM. Voting of ODM people against me is neither here nor there. Ruto is the person with a problem, he deceived ODM the way he deceived us in the mountain,” Gachagua stated.

Gachagua added that the mountain has had problems with Raila for many years because he has been demonized as someone against the region and that he is a bad person.

“Raila was a victim of our community’s distaste for betrayal… he has not betrayed us and has not done anything so grave that in our view makes it impossible to work with. I know I am not qualified to advise Raila but from my working with Ruto, let them be very careful,” he said.

As this happens, Makueni Senator Dan Maanzo has insisted that the government has a new coalition formed between Ruto and Raila.

“The smile on Raila’s face while he was doing this new handshake was emphatic… a new government has already been formed between Ruto and Raila and may be unpopular to the people, suppose Kenyans reject it just like they have rejected Kenya Kwanza?” he said yesterday in the morning show with Citizen TV.

Whatever handshakes political parties do, Maanzo said they should be for the benefit of Kenyans, even as he stated that the opposition is now in Government.

“I am experienced with how political parties are made, the deal is already made and most probably it was done in Addis Ababa. You heard Ruto making a speech that Raila is in government and will give him what belongs to him,” Maanzo noted.