This week’s replacement of Dr Ruto’s allies in the Senate was the culmination of a strategy to cut the publicly known political ties between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy.

When the DP started his countrywide tours, the president was not amused, according to insider accounts, and he reached out and sent trusted friends to plead with Dr Ruto to stop the tours.

Further, when the president sacked Cabinet secretaries Rashid Echesa (Sports) and Mwangi Kiunjuri (Agriculture), the DP was caught flat-footed, like any ordinary citizen, according to State House sources.

Sources indicated Dr Ruto was informed the president would be visiting Canada and it was impractical for them to visit the same country around the same period.

Since then, President Kenyatta has been dispatching Cabinet secretaries to meet with foreign Heads of State, or to represent him to international meetings, a tradition reserved for the vice-president in case the president cannot make it.