Weight of Kithure Kindiki's job description

President William Ruto hands a copy of the constitution to Prof Kithure Kindiki after he was sworn in as the third Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya on Nov 1, 2024. [PCS]

Deputy President Kithure Kindiki will walk a tightrope in the coming weeks as he seeks to balance between the will of the people including his now celebrating backyard and the expectations of his boss, President William Ruto, who enumerated the DP’s job description publicly on Friday at the swearing-in ceremony.

President Ruto wants Prof Kindiki to unleash his eloquence and intellectual fervour to communicate government projects and policies in a bid to mitigate the vacuum that the President alluded to earlier on August 8 during the swearing-in of his freshly appointed team of Cabinet Secretaries. That came after he dismissed his first Cabinet following the Gen Z protests that saw him refuse to assent into law of the controversial Finance Bill, 2024. 

Dr Ruto, then, admitted that poor communication, insufficient public engagement and impunity from some public officers misdirected members of the public that they had been abandoned by their administration.