page_title: Kipsigis people
section_title: Presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Kipsigis people / Post-independence / Politics / Community Politics / Prominent leadership / Presidency
caption_attribution_description: English: William Ruto
context_page_description: The Kipsigis, are a SouthEastern Nilotic people who live in Kenya and Tanzania and are a par of the Kalenjin-speaking group of peoples who alongside other Highland Nilotes of the African Great Lakes Region make up the Kalenjin ethnic group. They live in close relation and association with the Nandi. They are structurally heterogeneous with an amalgamation of 'ortinwek' from Nandi, Okieik, Maasai, Kisii, Luo and aboriginal ethnicities of Kenya. The Kipsigis people speak the Kipsigis language; Nilotic language which falls under the Nandi-Markweta cluster of the Kalenjin languages.
  In the late 19th century AD, the Kipsigis were eponymised as the Lumbwa; a name which is of Maasai origin, but was adopted by the European colonial government for administrative purpose.
  The Kipsigis together with other linguistically and culturally related peoples now identify as Kalenjin, an identity they have been collectively using since the 1950s.
context_section_description: Dr. William Kipchirchir Samoei araap Ruto (Komosii clan): William Ruto is from the Kipsigis ethnicity but largely misunderstood and/or mistaken to be of Nandi ethnicity. The ability of a Nandi to be elected a leader in Kipsigis and vice versa highlights the unity and coperation between Kipsigis and Nandi who still see each other as the diaspora of the other and as close kin even compared to other Kalenjin. Other geopolitically (Kipsigis-Nandi) inverted leaders include Tamason Barmalel from Nandi elected MP in Chepalungu and Isaack Ruto elected MP for Chepalungu and Governor for Bomet county.
  William Ruto was the Member of Parliament for Eldoret North Constituency, Cabinet Minister for Education and Cabinet Minister for Agriculture. He is the incumbent Deputy President of Kenya. He has been serving in this docate since his first term between 2013 and 2017 and currently in his second term which began in 2018 and will wend in 2022. He has been deputising the 4th president of Kenya, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta.  William Ruto has since 2017 openly hinted and since declared to contend Kenya's 2022 presidential post.
caption: William Kipchirchir Ruto, the Deputy President of Kenya
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