Play your cards right.

It got done. It got done even when all pointed to a damp squib of a plan. It worked despite the snobbish punditry and predictions of utter failure. It didn't work out exactly as had been planned, but the result places him a heartbeat away from the seat of ultimate political power in Kenya. Despite the International Criminal Court, William Samoei Ruto is sitting pretty - prettier than Raila Odinga, and certainly prettier than Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth, Kalonzo Musyoka and James Ole Kiyiapi.

Mr Ruto played a high-risk game with his legal fumbling at the beginning of the process. His choice of Kithure Kindiki at first blush looked sensible - until the good professor started speaking. In short order, Mr Ruto re-assessed hs options, somehow managed to find the fat wallet he needed and he plumped for the sharp-as-a-tack Karim Khan. The narrative from then on was a piece of cake: blame Raila Odinga and blame him good.

But what really sealed it for him was the partnership with Uhuru Kenyatta. Fumbling about for a party took its toll on Mr Ruto, but once he found the United Republican Party, and he sealed his partnership with Uhuru Kenyatta's The National Alliance, he proceeded to whip his political troops into disciplined shape - aping to the uniformed discipline Uhuru Kenyatta instilled in his political troops. (Perhaps this is when Kenyans should have noticed the martial mien of the Jubilee Alliance and prepared themselves for a fatigues-wearing Commander-in-Chief.)

In any case, between September 2012 and March 2013, William Ruto fulfilled a political dream - to be a major political player in his own right. However, again, this may all be another high-wire act by Mr Ruto. Uhuru Kenyatta has a relatively becalmed backyard. Central Kenya, Meru, Embu, Isiolo, Laikipia, Kajiado and Nakuru are without significant degrees of discontent. Mr Ruto, on the other hand, not only has significant pockets of the Rift Valley under the thumbs of Mr Odinga's minions, the whole area is in violent ferment...it may have began with Baragoi but it is most certainly not going to end with Kapedo.

Then there are the tenderpreneurs who felt cheated out of their fair share of the UhuRuto spoils of war. They are not going to be assuaged any time soon without massive dollops of cold hard tenderprising cash. Their marionettes in Parliament are going to have move with alacrity and deftness to ensure that if the laptops tender is ever implemented, there will be enough largesse to go around so that it doesn't seem as if the Deputy President is a nobody.

Finally, there is the impression that Mr Ruto is being shortchanged. After all, it is him and Joshua arap Sang alone who are being tried; Uhuru Kenyatta's trial has not taken off because, some of Mr Ruto's excitable acolytes allege, the Government of Kenya's senior-most State officers and civil servants have entered into a secret conspiracy to stymie the ICC at every turn. But they seem to have been mollified by the epidemic of recanting by witness, hostility and downright non-co-operation; they believe that the same blanket of conspiracy now covers their man.

We underestimated Mr Ruto's capacity for survival and reinvention. We underestimated his intelligence and capacity to seize opportunities as they presented themselves. We naively believed that the rule of law would prevail when it came to someone of his political cunning. We are paying the price for our naivete. In a decade or so we will look back and marvel at how he did it all. One thing is for sure, even those who think they have a handle on Mr Ruto continue to underestimate him gravely. They will regret their miscalculation - unless some of them come to their senses and play their cards right.