Amid numerous calls for jobs and favours from hangers-on to President-elect William Ruto, there is one more: his biographer, who predicted his win, wants a state job.
Babior Newton, who wrote the book ‘The Rise of a Hustler: From a Chicken Seller to Presidency’, says that as the new government settles in, he hopes to land “a good state job because supporting William Ruto, given where I come from, was not an easy thing”.
The 30-year-old businessman and serial author said in an interview over the weekend that he had foreseen long in the day that Ruto had a superior strategy and that he would outsmart his opponents to be the country’s fifth head of state.
The book was published earlier in the year, predicting with precision that despite what he calls tribulations, Ruto would overtake his state-backed challenger Raila Odinga to be the new President.
“I am analytical and I can evaluate an environment and listen to the stories and tell you where things are going. It was easy to tell as early as last year why this election was Ruto’s to lose,” he said.
Babior did not just prophesy and write about Ruto’s victory on first attempt; he also supported him and moved a few youths to vote for him.
“I like going against the grain, and that is why I personally campaigned for Ruto. He embodies the hopes of the present and the future. He will make the best President this country has ever known.”
But it was not an easy adventure, he said.
He says he encountered violent hostility from members of the public when he launched his book as well as rejection.
“Most publishers refused to take the book. Most media executives would also not let me give interviews and promote my book. In fact, I remember being ejected from the lobby of one major media house, where I was preparing to join a live set for an interview,” he said.
“Almost all dismissed the idea of a Ruto presidency. They told me Ruto would not be President and that they do not want to brush the government the wrong way. But who is laughing now?” he added, followed by raucous laughter.
And now that his prophecy has come to pass, the man from Seme Ka’Ila in Kisumu says it is time the President-elect paid him back.
“I want the President-elect to give me a job because people think that now that my prophecy came to be and I wrote a book about it, I have all the monies in the world. They think I have Ruto on speed dial.”
Even a janitor job at State House would do, he said.
