The current rebellion against Kenyan President William Ruto for failing the people has not come as a surprise to any keen watchers of the East African country’s political scene.
Ruto, his confidence and oratory skills notwithstanding, was not just bound to deliver Kenya from the decades of bad governance. He has always been a key pillar and a major beneficiary of misrule.
To begin with, Ruto made an ignominious entry into politics, at the height of the Second Liberation struggle in 1992, when he abandoned his postgraduate studies at the University of Nairobi, to become the treasurer of the Youth for Kanu (YK’92).
The latter was a shadowy organisation founded by dictator President Daniel arap Moi, ostensibly to campaign for his re-election.
YK’92 would be involved in all manner of ills. Printing of fake currency notes for bribes, murders, fomenting ethnic animosity, rape and abductions were among what they best indulged in.
Fast forward, and Ruto deftly deploying ethnic mobilisation and corruption, wormed his way into the presidency in August 2022.
Figures were soon manipulated and the purse strings loosened to buy the opposition MPs’ loyalty, giving Ruto an overwhelming majority in parliament.
Like his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta, Ruto then deployed the ‘tyranny of numbers’ to completely neuter both the Senate and the National Assembly.
Every Bill he fancied, however unpopular, sailed through. Outside the Houses of Legislation, Ruto and all his lieutenants’ chest-thumped, while displaying opulence hitherto unknown in Kenya. They had it all under wrap, or so they thought.
There was a clear dissonance between the president’s rhetoric and actions, and Kenya continued down the descent, to the chagrin of the populace, especially the younger generations.
While his deputy Rigathi Gachagua oozed vengeance and arrogance against the perceived enemies, Ruto largely acted presidential, at least in words.
At every opportunity, the Commander in Chief deployed his oratory skills, giving much hope to Kenyans that the country was finally done with the decades of misrule.
However, it was soon clear that the fifth administration was following the well-trodden bad path. The Ruto rule was anchored on four pillars; perpetuating ethnic hegemony, the unbridled consolidation of power, rewarding cronies, dividing Kenyans on ethnic lines and overseeing elite opulence.
Ruto, like his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta, entrenched the Kalenjin and Kikuyu (Gema) hegemony that has been the defining future of the Kenyan governance structure.
In all his critical appointments, the president was beholden to the three-dimension philosophy criterion; the Kalenjins, the Kikuyus and the rest of Kenyans.
Whereas the two (Kalenjin and Kikuyu) voting blocs may have been responsible for his rise to the pinnacle, he would have been well advised to be cognisant of his being the president for all Kenyans.
Ruto’s unfettered favouritism of the two communities was not only inimical to national cohesion, but also locked out some of the best brains that would have helped him transform Kenya fundamentally.
A genius from the ‘wrong’ tribe had zilch chance of being part of the Ruto administration in which ethnic affiliation seemed to override all other qualifications.
On the second pillar, the president was going all-out to consolidate power and render any dissenting voice too inaudible to make a difference.
That, he did through both coaxing and coercion. With a pliable National Assembly and Senate rubberstamping his every decision, Ruto proceeded to reorganise the security agencies and to emasculate the Judiciary, effectively ensuring that only the politically incorrect were held accountable for any misdeeds.
By so doing the president reinforced the belief that indeed crime pays in Kenya, so long as you are on the side of the authorities. High profile convicts like Sirisia MP John Waluke took the cue and aligned accordingly.
One the third and the fourth pillars, President Ruto was equally sticking to the Uhuru script. While he loudly pronounced his inheriting near-empty state coffers from the latter, Ruto continued to squander every opportunity to make a saving, mostly driven by his desire to reward his cronies.
He began by appointing elected politicians to several critical positions and by so doing, subjecting Kenyans to unnecessary and hugely costly by-elections.
Against a court order, the President was hell-bent on retaining the illegal Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) positions that have absolutely no value. Even more unnerving was the integrity baggage that most of the 52 appointees came with to office.
Like Uhuru before him, President Ruto seemed to have a big appetite for the costly but unnecessary international travel. In his less than 100 days in office, the president had probably made more international trips than the more judicious former presidents of Botswana and Tanzania Ian Khama and John Magufuli respectively, made in five years.
This year alone, before the Gen Zs put a stop to his global adventures, Ruto had made at least 20 international trips. It was instructive that the trips to Italy and Switzerland, which followed another to South Korea, came even before the dust had settled over the cost of his travel to the US.
The popular believe was that his private jet hired from the Middle East alone, cost $1.5 million, but he insisted that he paid on $78,000, with his ‘friends’ in the Arab world settling the balance. The Ruto trips invariably come with huge delegations in toe, majority on Business Class air tickets, Five-Star hotel accommodation and generous per diems.
To finance the state profligacy, Ruto worked with his retinue of the over pampered advisers to attempt taxing everything under the sun. No amount of expert opinion or the public outcry was going to stop Ruto.
One of his more arrogant loyalists, legislator Kuria Kimani, had the audacity to tell those unhappy with Kenya’s taxes to consider relocating to other jurisdictions.
The younger generations, seeing no hope now and in the future, had to take up the struggle mantle. How Ruto will wriggle his way out of the rebellion? Only time will tell!
