Ruto's legendary thick skin cracks and now takes aim at his critics

President William Ruto during Jamhuri Day celebrations at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi, on December 12, 2024. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

President William Ruto, since taking office in 2022, has either ignored or laughed off attacks from critics and naysayers opposed to his projects, but it now appears that the cynicism is starting to weigh on him.

Only four weeks ago, he dismissed people opposing his projects, saying those hell-bent on opposing all the good projects and programmes his Kenya Kwanza administration is implementing — among them affordable housing and the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) — are guided by bad faith.

When under pressure, be it from Gen Z, the opposition, or the Catholic bishops, he has never minced his words when dismissing critics. On many occasions, he organises impromptu rallies across the country to strongly hit back while rallying support against them.

The Jamhuri Day speech came as a big surprise because it projected a different president from the one Kenyans have known since he took office.

“There is a time to resist and a time to accept; a time to deny and a time to admit; a time to doubt and a time to believe,” said the President during the 61st Jamhuri celebrations.

This came eight days after his Taita Taveta event, where he appeared jittery about his own cancellation of the Adani JKIA and Ketraco deals. He described those opposed to his projects as people being led by evil spirits.

Speaking while launching the Devki Iron Ore plant in Voi, Ruto denied being party to the Devki investments, dismissing rumours about it as ill-advised.

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Political analyst Prof Gitile Naituli of Multimedia University believes the criticism is getting to the President’s nerves, but instead of responding, he is advised to silence critics by diligently working hard to deliver on the promises they are asking for.

“He needs to respond positively by accepting the criticism because these people want him to succeed. They are actually assisting him because he can answer by meeting the challenges being thrown at his doorstep. If he does that, then the President will definitely win their support,” says Prof Naituli.

Naituli has, however, noticed that the President appears rattled by the criticism, possibly because there is some element of truth in what is being said against his government, especially now that time is quickly ticking towards the 2027 elections.

Pressure from the many promises he is expected to deliver in the next two and a half years, combined with the mounting criticism, could be creating anxiety, as he also juggles the re-election matrix for 2027.

It is argued that the President probably thinks he needs to set the record straight by telling Kenyans what he has done, but a lot more is needed because the more he explains, the worse his government looks.

Naituli is also not convinced that the President’s outreach for the support of former President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga will help much unless he addresses the issues raised recently by the Catholic bishops and Gen Z during their protests.

“It will not help much if he addresses the quest for good roads, schools, healthcare, and the cost of living. Kibaki never met anybody to seek support; he just worked quietly. People may also think President Ruto wants to use shortcuts through political wheeler-dealing. The electorate is now more intelligent,” added Naituli.

UDA party Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Arnold Maliba, however, argues that the problem the current administration faces should be blamed on the untenable structures of government created by the 2010 Constitution.

“The difference between Kibaki’s administration and ours is the 2010 Constitution, because he did not have a Parliament the size of a high school like we do, and the many counties that now take about Sh400 billion to pay salaries and other recurrent expenditure,” says Maliba.

He also thinks all politicians, not just President Ruto, have a problem of over-promising because of the demands the electorate places on them, leaving policymakers with the difficult task of delivering on those pledges.

To remedy the situation, Maliba proposes a review of the Constitution to reduce the 1,450 county assembly representatives and their almost 700 nominated colleagues.

He says the number of constituencies should also not be increased when the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is reconstituted.

President Ruto has, in the meantime, urged Kenyans to objectively look at the efforts the government is making instead of listening to people spreading falsehoods and propaganda for selfish political mileage.

“In the face of undeniable evidence, scepticism must give way to confidence, and we must reject the deceptive embrace of disinformation and fake news,” said Ruto during Jamhuri Day celebrations at Uhuru Gardens on Thursday.

Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, one of President Ruto’s biggest supporters, appeared to set the tone a few weeks ago, when he told a gathering in Kericho that his boss was being unfairly treated, unlike his predecessors Jomo Kenyatta, Mwai Kibaki, and Uhuru Kenyatta.

Murkomen, who was recently relocated to the Sports docket, claimed that President Ruto was being targeted because of his tribe and blamed the Church, media, and government critics for playing negative ethnic politics in their evaluation of the President’s performance.

“Why is Ruto only being compared to former President Daniel arap Moi, who was also from the Kalenjin community, and not others like Jomo Kenyatta, Mwai Kibaki, and Uhuru Kenyatta, who were all from the Kikuyu tribe?” asked Murkomen.

He described the attacks as unfair and urged Kenyans to give the President time before judging his performance at the end of his term, arguing that Kibaki also faced the same criticism Ruto is getting in his first two years, but he managed to turn the economy around.

The President has also received a lot of criticism for allegedly not listening to advice and calls for good governance, an end to abductions, and a halt to the increasing unexplained extrajudicial killings.

He appeared to address those concerns on Thursday, saying: “I have no problem with discourse, criticism, and alternative proposals. In fact, I welcome them and listen to feedback in order to learn, improve, and become better.”

But even with that acknowledgement, he still believes some of those fears are unfounded: “At the same time, I see clearly that a lot of what passes for facts are falsehoods and that most opposition is based on inaccurate representations and outright disinformation.”

Ruto is an extremely effective communicator, and that is why, when campaigning on the hustlers versus dynasties agenda, he easily convinced millions of jobless and restless young Kenyans to vote for him.

He told them “nyinyi dio kusema”, meaning that their destiny lay in their own hands, but upon taking power, young people are still waiting for the promises they were given in 2021 and 2022 to be fulfilled. Their lives have not changed, and anger is now boiling against the sender of that message and his messengers.

He has also been faulted for not taking advantage of the opportunity presented by Gen Z after their protests, despite making commitments that the government would address their grievances.

“It appears they never understood those young people. He should be more worried now that they are quiet. The calm should not be misunderstood for victory because the Gen Z haven’t forgotten the abductions and the killings,” says Naituli.

Good example

Maliba argues that Ruto has admitted the shortfalls in his government and made changes when necessary, a good example being the changes that followed the Gen Z protests.

“He did away with Cabinet, which was unprecedented because it had not happened in the history of this country. He has also come up with many new policies as demanded by Kenyans,” says Maliba.

He, however, shifted blame to Parliament for allegedly not taking tough decisions against human rights abuses, forced abductions, and extrajudicial killings, which he says should have been investigated by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, National Intelligence Service, and National Police Service, among other agencies.

President Ruto has also implored Kenyans to be not only fair in their criticism but also give credit to the efforts the government is making to deliver on its programmes, like job creation, because many Kenyans have already been connected to or secured jobs in foreign countries.

He has also urged critics to engage with the government based on the truth because failure to do so will take the country down a path of negativity and tear people away from the values they cherish.

“It should not turn us into a people estranged from unity who sabotage development, undermine democracy, and destroy our Republic in the pursuit of political expediency,” said Ruto.

Although opinion is divided, the President is confident that the country is on the right path, because, according to his own analysis, it is a fact that the cost of basic food commodities has come down and inflation has also reduced.