Political bait: Of William Ruto's 'six-month' lie and broken promises

President William Ruto hosts the 95th St John Ambulance annual parade and inspection at State House, Nairobi. [PCS]

When William Ruto took the oath of office on September 13, 2022, he inherited a nation grappling with soaring cost of living, a devastating drought and a weary citizenry. On the campaign trail, he had positioned himself as the solution, a decisive leader who would not keep Kenyans waiting.

His trademark promise, repeated on podiums nationwide, was simple: “In six months, you will see the difference.”

Now, years into his term, a different narrative has taken root. From teachers awaiting promotions and footballers chasing bonuses, to stalled markets and dams that exist only on paper, a pattern of deadlines missed and pledges unfulfilled has emerged.

This is the ledger of those promises documented, dated, and anchored in the public record.

On September 13, 2025, President Ruto invited teachers’ unions to State House. During that meeting, he issued a directive that teachers would be given one additional job group, and the Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (KUSNET) left the meeting optimistic.

Six months later, on March 29, 2026, KUSNET Secretary General James Torome stood before the press in Mbita sub-county with a message that the directive had not been implemented and not a single teacher had received the promised promotion or the salary increment that would have accompanied it.

The President had also promised teachers 20 per cent of houses in every estate constructed through the affordable housing project. That agreement was set to expire on March 13, 2026. The six-month deadline has long expired.

The phrase “in six months’ time...” is not new to Ruto’s political vocabulary; it predates his presidency.

Kwamchetsi Makokha, a board member of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), recalled during the Jubilee administration that then-Deputy President Ruto stood before crowds and made a specific pledge about Kamariny Stadium.

“In six months, the stadium in Kamariny will be complete,” Ruto had said.

For residents of Elgeyo Marakwet, the Kamariny Stadium pledge became a symbol. The stadium, a cherished athletics hub in a region known for producing world-beating runners, remained untouched for years after the promise.

When the President eventually visited the area again, the stadium was still an open field. Last year, a new contractor set up base at the site before deserting it.

Now Kamariny is set to host Mashujaa Day on December 12 this year, but construction has yet to commence.

The market promise

Perhaps no single example captures the frustration of ‘launch and leave’ governance better than the Githunguri market.

Area MP Gathoni Wamuchomba was, until recently, one of the most vocal critics of Ruto’s development track record. 

“The last time he appeared in my constituency, he came with a lot of force and launched a market,” Wamuchomba said during a TV interview in September 2025. “The day he left, the contractor left, and to date, the foundation stone that he laid is still there. Not an inch moved.” 

Ruto had pledged to deliver 15,000 housing units in Kiambu county, along with 30 modern markets for Sh4.5 billion.

“If he cannot deliver a market, for heaven’s sake, how do you want me to believe he is going to do 15,000 housing units? Finish the aggregation centre, the stalled markets and roads, and then come back with new promises,” Wamuchomba said.

During the 2022 campaign, Ruto made water security a cornerstone of his platform. He promised 100 mega dams and 1,000 smaller dams to end drought, provide irrigation and transform agriculture.

In July 2025, Water Cabinet Secretary Eric Mugaa appeared before the Senate and revealed that not a single dam had been completed under the pledge.

The flagship Faui and Umaa dams remained works in progress. The ambitious target of 1,000 small dams had collapsed.

Projects that Ruto launched in Machakos, Kitui and Makueni counties over the last two years have commenced, but most have stalled.

In Machakos, Ruto launched the Kivandini–Museleni road upgrade set to cost Sh1.25 billion to elevate the road to bitumen standard. He also launched the Kangundo–Mwala road project, which starts with the 13km Kangundo–Kivaani section and was expected to create connections to other major roads, including the B105 and B106.

The road was set to link directly to the Thika–Garissa (A3) highway and the Makutano–Mwala–Kitui–Machakos route.

None of the projects has started. Let us not even touch the Thwake Dam matter, the controversial stalled project that has left the people of Makueni feeling isolated, that, after families were relocated to pave the way for the dam, was the sign of hope to the people of the drought-prone semi-arid county. 

Cycle of grand launches

In Nyamira, Ruto’s push to establish a university college in Kiabonyoru has become a bewildering cycle of grand launches and ceremonial ground-breakings, with the Head of State personally presiding over multiple “foundation stone” events that have yet to yield a fully operational campus.

It starts on August 12, 2024, when Ruto issued a presidential directive for the new institution. He then staged a site handover in August 2025, followed by a groundbreaking ceremony in October 2025, yet actual construction only limped into motion around January 2026.

On April 13, 2026, Ruto returned to Kiabonyoru to lay yet another foundation stone while pledging Sh500 million and Sh300 million for hostels. 

During the Labour Day celebrations on May 1, the flags were up, the microphones live, and the crowd in place, cheering on, but not in a stadium.

The celebrations in Vihiga county were inside the grounds of Chavakali High School, where classrooms gave way to tents and a school transformed into a national stage.

But just a short drive away, Kidundu Stadium, once promised as the modern home of major county events, is yet to start and unfinished, its construction stalled and silent.

“Young people are talented but the government has abandoned them. Leaders come here to make promises and disappear immediately after elections. What a shame!” said Ian Lutta, a resident.

Aside from the promises, taxpayers could be losing millions of shillings in Ruto’s elaborate project launch and relaunch ceremonies, and from vandalism as highly publicised projects across the country stall while others are yet to kick off.

Earlier this month, ODM leaders allied to the Linda Mwananchi faction claimed some of the projects do not have transparent funding models and described them as publicity stunts.

In some projects, only the President’s name inscribed on the lonely launching plaques remains as a reminder of the plan to start a project, and a sign of the expensive commissioning exercise behind it.

For instance, just last month, the President left Gusii residents puzzled after relaunching a stalled road whose construction he launched when he was the deputy president in 2018.

But this time round, eight years later, he launched it from the other end and called it Keumbu-Gachuba–Kiendege–Kemera Road.

The road, which had stalled after the contractor did less than 2km from Kemera town, had also been originally launched by then President Uhuru Kenyatta, before Ruto repeated it a year later.

Unpaid workers dues

Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Gisairo has weighed in on the matter, terming Ruto a liar who should not try to hoodwink residents of Kitutu Masaba over the stalling of the road.

“When the President says the contractor has failed to complete the road project, how does he expect him to finish it when he has not been paid?

“He did some work on the ground that is visible. But after claiming payment, he has never been listened to. How then could Ruto expect the road to be completed?” Gisaoro said.

A spot check by The Standard across several counties established that many projects are yet to be implemented.

In the Mt Kenya region, construction work at the Ruring’u Affordable Housing Project stalled after more than 30 workers downed tools in protest over wages that they said had gone unpaid for up to four weeks.

The workers, some of whom travel from outside Nyeri county, said they were forced to protest after weeks of unmet promises and worsening living conditions.

“We have stayed four weeks without getting paid. Now we decided to demonstrate,” said Samson, one of the affected workers. “We are not from this area. I come from Nairobi. We have no food and we are surviving on help from those who can manage to assist us.”

In Nyeri, Ruring’u Stadium is another stalled public infrastructure. Initially designed as a 20,000-seater venue, the project has since been redesigned to a 15,000-seat facility, with costs rising to approximately Sh850 million following multiple revisions.

Its delay has denied Nyeri the capacity to host major sporting events, including national athletics competitions, weakening the county’s position as a regional sports hub.

“For Nyeri, we shall only back the government if essential initiatives are delivered — including a dual carriageway from Marua through Nyeri town to Mweiga, Sh1 billion for the upgrade of Nyeri General Hospital, completion of Ruring’u stadium, and hosting of this year’s Jamhuri Day celebrations at the stadium,” Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga said.

The delayed construction of the Nithi bridge remains one of the biggest concerns for people in the larger Meru region. It was one of the key campaign pledges by Ruto, and as more people lose their lives, residents have expressed disappointment with the delay.

The promised completion of the Sh27 billion Mau Mau Road, designed to connect the four counties of Kiambu, Murang’a, Nyeri and Nyandarua, remains a mirage following inadequate funding. 

At the Coast, residents are waiting for the Kenya Kwanza government to start the purchase of various parcels of land for the resettlement of squatters.

With the delays to the programme that was promised to squatters more than two years ago and mentioned by Ruto in his frequent Coast tours, many now believe this project will be used as bait during the election period to woo Coast votes.

In one of his latest visits to the Coast, Ruto promised some squatters occupying land belonging to the Catholic Church in Voi, Taita Taveta, that the government would buy it for their resettlement.

He made a similar pledge to squatters during Mashujaa Day celebrations in Kwale County, and at the Kilifi International Investment Conference held at Vipingo Ridge.

Last year, the government announced that Sh1 billion had been set aside to buy land for squatters from absentee landlords in the region.

Long wait, little effort

For more than two years, the government has also failed to implement the expansion project for Malindi International Airport, which is envisaged to attract global travellers to the ‘Small Italy’.

Tourism stakeholders feel the wait is long overdue and there appears to be little effort to actualise the upgrade of the key airport.

‘’It is a critical infrastructure and each time a government official speaks, we wait to see tractors and other equipment turn the soil upside down. We have resorted to wait and see,” said Edson Key Aranchi, owner of villas and cottages in Malindi and Watamu.

Meanwhile, the Kenya Kwanza administration has been unable to complete the Ronald Ngala Utalii College at Vipingo in Kilifi County, even after promising to have the first cohort admitted by April 2025.

Construction of the project is expected to gobble up between Sh10 billion and Sh11 billion. Initially estimated at Sh4.9 billion, the project has faced long delays, with the first phase costing an additional Sh1.9 billion and still incomplete.

In the Rift Valley, despite being the President’s political bedrock, the region has a significant backlog of stalled projects that Ruto himself initiated.

His administration is yet to start construction of the Arror and Kimwarer dams, key water projects that were expected to turn Kerio Valley into an agricultural hub and create thousands of jobs.

On March 14, 2023, Ruto met his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella in Nairobi and discussed the resumption of the stalled projects expected to cost Sh63 billion. 

But the proposed sites of the mega dams are still farmlands. Ruto had claimed during the 2022 presidential campaigns that the dams were derailed by Uhuru’s cronies to weaken his political strength in the Rift Valley.

In other projects, fluorspar mining in Kimwarer, Elgeyo Marakwet county, which employed more than 3,000 residents before it collapsed in 2015, was set to roar back by mid-last year.

A new investor, a United Kingdom firm, announced at the mining site in 2024 that it had pumped Sh4.8 billion into the revival of fluorspar mining in Kimwarer.

Residents were hopeful of a turnaround in the area’s economy and jobs, but the mining site remains a thicket with rusty equipment.

The new mining company, Sofax Fluorspar, had secured a 25-year lease.

No charity at home?

In Uasin Gishu, the President launched several programmes, including Moi’s Bridge-Matunda water projects and last-mile electricity connectivity initiatives, among other projects in Soy, Kapseret, Turbo and Kesses, which remain incomplete.

Road projects, including Moi University-Nigeria and extension of Chepterit-Moi University to Kesses-Kerita-Kimwarer, are among pledges that the Ruto administration has yet to implement.

Nyaru-Fluorspar-Emsea-Biretwo-Arror-Chesongoch road, which was expected to connect Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot and Turkana counties by joining with Kolowa-Tot-Litre-Marich Pass Road, remains a dream.

The proposed Sh28 billion new Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) is among the projects that remain pending.

Multi-million-shilling iconic stadiums, including Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu and another Kipchoge Keino sports facility in Kapsabet, Nandi County, remain unfinished.

Ruto visited the delayed stadium in Eldoret early last year and handed over the site to a Chinese contractor.

But a few weeks ago, Sports Kenya said a Sh700 million pending bill would derail the pace of implementation of Eldoret’s biggest training and competition facility.

Refurbishing of Kipchoge Keino Stadium stopped early in 2024.

In Kericho County, the construction of the much-anticipated Londiani Referral Hospital in Londiani remains elusive despite repeated assurances from Ruto.

Kipkelion East MP Joseph Cherorot has urged the government to increase funding to at least Sh1 billion to adequately meet the projected costs and healthcare demands of the growing population.

He noted that the allocation of 100 acres of land by the county government demonstrates the local community’s readiness to support the initiative.

However, the hospital is just one among several projects facing setbacks across the county.

The construction of the Kerenga Airstrip in Belgut Constituency has remained stalled since the Mashujaa Day celebrations in 2023.

Meanwhile, the Affordable Housing project at Majengo Tallai on the outskirts of Kericho town has also fallen behind schedule, despite ongoing funding from the national government.

The first phase of the project is expected to deliver 324 housing units, including one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units, and is currently reported to be over 50 per cent complete.

The Kiprugut Chumo Stadium, formerly Kericho Green Stadium, also remains incomplete years after initial works began.

The stadium, renamed in honour of Kiprugut Chumo, was the site of tragedy during the 2023 Mashujaa Day celebrations, where four people lost their lives in a stampede at Gate C, further highlighting concerns over incomplete infrastructure and safety preparedness.

In the neighbouring Bomet County, a water project launched in 2015 to serve over 7,000 residents of Konoin, Sotik and Bureti constituencies has stalled.

The dam was launched with great optimism and was expected to secure water, boost food production and support economic growth in the county that struggles with water shortage.

Over a decade later, the construction site remains idle despite billions of shillings pumped.

The project was intended to supply water to the residents of the two counties of Bomet and Kericho and was to be completed in three years at Sh21 billion.

So close yet so far!

When he assumed office, Ruto committed to completing all stalled projects, including the Bosto project, listing it as one of the 100 priority dams across the country.

He announced during a visit to the South Rift that he had secured funding from the Chinese towards its completion.                     

“We have secured Sh15 billion from the Chinese government for the project. I will be returning to go and sign the agreement,” Ruto said in July 2024 during a tour of South Rift.

In Baringo County, various projects the President had committed to completing have stalled.

Among them is the 100km Marigat-Mochongoi-Karandi road. The project was part of a broader initiative intended to enhance security and connectivity in the area. Ruto inspected the project in late 2025.

The construction of affordable housing in Kabarnet and Marigat has also stalled.

In Nakuru County, the construction of the Itare dam remains a promise. Little has been done to ensure the resumption of construction works.

In May 2024, the government said its plan to revive the construction of the dam in Kuresoi North will cost the taxpayers an extra Sh5 billion.

Initially, the dam, whose construction was launched in 2016, was to cost Sh35 billion.

It is expected to serve more than 800,000 people in Molo, Njoro, Rongai, Kuresoi, and Nakuru town.

It only remains to be seen how far Ruto will take some of the projects in the homestretch to next year’s election. The status of some of the projects will determine the would-be beneficiaries’ reception of President Ruto seeking re-election.