President William Ruto has disclosed a special gift late President Daniel Arap Moi gave during his reign as the head of state.

Speaking during the launch of Maj. (Rtd) Marsden Madoka, Ruto narrated how he rose through the ranks in the KANU government despite earlier differences with Moi.

Ruto said Moi did not support his nomination to the KANU since he was from an unknown background and outgoing.

However, he stated that Moi learnt to contain and understand him, and they later became very good friends.

Ruto said the former President went ahead to appoint him as the Assistant Minister, in his first term as a Member of Parliament (MPs).

“Finally, I made friends with President Moi. He came to understand that I was not a very useless person or noisy. He then appointed me to be an assistant Minister. I think a year and a half into my term as an MP. I joined Marsden.

He stated that Moi gave him a hotline, which he used to reach out to all government officials directly.

Ruto said only special people operated the hotline, and anytime it rang, it was either the President or a senior government official.

“He became very fond of me and gave me something that many people did not have. Only people like Amos Wako and senior people, including Ministers, had it. They used to have something called a hotline in those days. This was a telephone that did not have secretaries; it was the President’s telephone; he used it to call people directly,” he said.

“So, if that phone rang, you know it was either the President or one of the senior people. So, I became the only Assistant Minister then with a hotline.”

Photo of President William Ruto at previous press conference. PHOTO/ X State House