He was born on 21 December 1966 in Sambut village, Kamagut, Uasin Gishu County to Daniel Cherui have toyot and Sarah Cheruiyot. He attended Kerotet Primary School for his primary school education. He was enrolled in Wareng Secondary School for his Ordinary Levels education before proceeding to Kapsabet Boys High School in Nandi County for his Advanced Levels. He then went on to receive a BSc in Botany and Zoology from the University of Nairobi, graduating in 1990. Ruto later enrolled for a MSc in Plant ecology, graduating in 2011. The following year, he enrolled for a Ph.D. and after several setbacks, He completed and was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi, graduating on 21 December 2018. Ruto authored several papers including a paper titled Plant Species Diversity and Composition of Two Wetlands in the Nairobi National Park, Kenya. During his time in the campus for the undergraduate course, Ruto was an active member of the Christian Union. He also served as the Chairman of the University of Nairobi’s choir.
It is through his church leadership activities at the University of Nairobi that Ruto met President Daniel Arap Moi who would introduce him to Kenya politics at later date, specifically during the 1992 general elections.
Ruto owns a considerable chicken farm in his home village of Sugoi, which was originally inspired by his stint as a live chicken hawker on the Nairobi-Eldoret highway.
Political career
After graduating from the University of Nairobi in 1990, Ruto was employed as a teacher in the North Rift region of Kenya from 1990 to 1992, where he was also the leader of the local African Inland Church(AIC) Choir.
YK’92
Ruto began his political career when he became the treasurer of the YK’92 campaign group that was lobbying for the re-election of President Moi in 1992, from where he learned the ropes of Kenyan politics. He is also believed to have accumulated some wealth in this period. After the 1992 elections, President Moi disbanded YK’92 and Ruto attempted to vie for various KANU (then Kenya’s ruling party) branch party positions but did not succeed.
Member Of Parliament
Ruto competed for a parliamentary seat at the 1997 Kenyan general election. He surprisingly beat the incumbent, Reuben Chesire, Moi’s preferred candidate, as well as the Uasin Gishu KANU branch chairman and assistant minister. After this, he would later gain favour with Moi and be appointed KANU Director of Elections. His strong support in 2002 for Moi’s preferred successor Uhuru Kenyatta saw him get a place as assistant minister in the Home Affairs (Interior) ministry docket. Later in that election, as some government ministers resigned to join the opposition, he would be promoted to be the full Cabinet Minister in the ministry.mKANU lost the election but he retained his parliamentary seat. Ruto would thereafter be elected KANU Secretary General in 2005 with Uhuru Kenyatta getting elected as Chairman.
In 2005, Kenya held a constitutional referendum which KANU opposed. Some members of the ruling NARC coalition government, mainly former KANU ministers who had joined the opposition coalition in 2002 under the LDP banner and who were disgruntled as the President Kibaki had not honored a pre-election MoU .On power-sharing and creation of a Prime Minister post, joined KANU to oppose the proposed constitution. Since the symbol of the “No” vote was an Orange, this new grouping named their movement the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). Ruto was part of its top brass, dubbed the Pentagon. He solidified his voter base in the Rift Valley Province. ODM was victorious in the referendum.
In January 2006, Ruto declared publicly that he would vie for the presidency in the next 2007 Kenyan general election. His statement was condemned by some of his KANU colleagues, including former president Moi. By this time, ODM
