Ruto: Is he the new Pan-African ideologue or just playing political showbiz?

"Africa has greater renewable energy from wind, water, and geothermal, and Kenya is leading the way in green energy. At the Global Citizen Event, we call on the global financial system, one that does not pit the West against the East, North against the South, one that does not pit the emitters against the non-emitters and developing countries against the developed," he noted.

"We want a system that is fair, that is transparent, that is not too much to ask for." That was President William Ruto's five-minute speech on the street of Paris with his back to the Eiffel Tower, which received a standing ovation from the thousands of attendants. At the podium, President Ruto was in his element as he articulated the African position.

For a President that was once accused by the opposition of being a 'puppet of the West, working for the interest of foreign powers and not Kenya', Dr Ruto is either duplicitous in his new position, playing to the African gallery, or has reached a Damascus moment, and taking a turn against the West.

Whatever the state, Ruto is slowly becoming the African Diplomat.

Dr Ruto, nine months into his presidency, is effortlessly reawakening the pan-Africanism dream, that ebbed with the deaths of Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba of Congo, now DRC, Thomas Sankara of Burkin Faso, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Nelson Mandela of South Africa and the late Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.

As he preaches for the Pan-Africanism renaissance, Ruto has been talking tough, taking on the Western world and its institutions. Pundits believe that on the Pan-African front, Ruto was achieving high scores.

Political Analyst Martin Wandati notes that Ruto had managed to effortlessly jump-start again the African dream that was being pursued by the late Gaddafi.

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"Ruto has come out very well in championing for Africa and it seems that his speeches resonate well with the continent and beyond if the speech in Paris is anything to go by. The late Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli was another Pan Africanist buts not much travel did not allow him to be heard well like Ruto today," said Andati.

A day before the speech at the Eiffel Towe, Ruto had been bullish taking on the West and the Bretton Wood institutions in Europe, insisting that its relationship with Africa must shift.

In a round table meeting during the Global Financial Pact Summit in Paris, France, the President called for a re-engineering of the engagement between the West, and the international financial institutions to make them more responsive to the needs of Africa.

Ruto also shared a podium with French President Emmanuel Macron, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, and President of the World Bank Group Ajay Banga at the ongoing New Global Financial Pact Summit.

He said Africa can no longer be seen as just a continent that needs help but as a partner, adding that the globe cannot continue talking normally when things are not going forward.

Done differently

At one point, there was a back-and-forth exchange between Ruto and Macron as the president insisted things had to be done differently.

President Ruto said the new financial order will help the world overcome poverty and climate change, noting that the financial architecture must be of equals. He said resources should neither be controlled by the World Bank nor the IMF.

"Africa does not want anything for free. But we need a new global financial model where power is not in the hands of a few," he added that the move will ensure "we all have fair access to resources".

Tough-talking, bold, and persuasive, on the global and continental podiums, Ruto is slowly reawakening the emergence of the Pan-African dream and steadily taking a position as the continent's ambassador.

From the podiums in Paris, New York to London, Johannesburg Addis Ababa, Lusaka to Djibouti, President Ruto's speeches have been dominated by five key areas that all seek to reimagine the dream of the founding fathers of the continent.

In the footsteps of the founders of the Organisation of the African Union (OAU) in the early 1960s, Ruto has spent his nine months in power pushing for African solutions to the continent's problems - insisting on the need to have unity of purpose and taking advantage of its geopolitics.

Among the notable areas Ruto has pushed for is the African Free Trade Area protocol asking the continent to adopt a free boundary area. While talking in Lusaka Zambia early in the month, Ruto called for the introduction of a single African currency to ease trade on the continent.

Delivering his maiden speech at the 22nd Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) heads of State and Government Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, Ruto said that regional integration meant that citizens would not have to worry about which currency to trade in.

"Our people cannot trade without worrying about which currency to use. This, among other non-tariff barriers, is something we must urgently address so that our people can begin to trade together and integrate," he said.

While addressing Djibouti National Assembly on Sunday, Ruto said that for the continent to highlight the impressive scope and promise of appropriate continental instruments, they need to reflect for a moment on the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

"This single mechanism has inaugurated the world's largest free-trade areas. Under it, 54 countries have agreed to create a single market with a population of 1.4 billion and a GDP of $3.4 trillion (Sh476 trillion). Free trade is projected to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty and boost incomes by seven per cent, or $450 billion (6.3 trillion) by 2035. This is the magnitude," said Ruto.

Free trade

Ruto observed that African integration will require freer movement of people and goods, which in turn calls for better infrastructures and connectivity, and yet the soul of free trade is the medium of exchange.

The Head of State in his speeches that are now almost synonymous with his strong position on the continent says he holds the view, quite strongly, that the time has come for 'us to implement the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System' to facilitate instant payment under a simplified framework throughout the continent, and as a precursor to a Pan-African currency.

"We have to be ready to embrace change on that level if we are going to install financial and economic shock absorbers to African growth, to protect it from over dependence on the US dollar. I am a strong proponent of self-reliance," he observed. In Ruto's submission, he wholeheartedly subscribes to the principle of African solutions to Africa's problems, must exercise full capacities and work with what they have notably the capacities are not modest.

"Unity of purpose and determined collaboration is our best way out of many challenges, and it is here that we must first look before seeking solutions outside, begging for help, or blaming the past for our failure," Ruto averred at the Djibouti National Assembly.

Just like in Lusaka last week, and a summit in South Africa a couple of months ago, Ruto has insisted that we must give voice to the philosophy of solving Africa's problems through African solutions through legislation and policymaking infused with expertise, skills, and insights refined and enhanced in the course of debate and the exchange of knowledge.

Ruto has repeatedly urged African leaders to formulate effective solutions to the pressing problems of unemployment, poverty, and inequality arising from gross underdevelopment whilst remaining mindful of our ecological responsibility.

He said it is the duty of leaders to educate a reluctant world that African aspirations are humanity's aspirations and that the interests of Africa are the world's existential challenges, not some peculiar indulgence of African activists.

National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi 'however' notes that Ruto is an opportunist who had discovered that some top leaders in the continent were not in a good relationship with the West and therefore his tough talk was part of courting the US, and European countries.

Wandayi said that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had fallen out with the West as well as his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa and that Ruto has seen an opportunity to be the 'poster boy' for Africa's renaissance.

"Ruto is simply courting the West, he is an opportunist who knows that there is a vacuum of leadership in the continent and he is occupying that space by playing to the international gallery and this adds to the incoherence of his government on the foreign policy," said Wandayi.

The Ugunja MP said that he has not known Ruto to stand for Pan-Africanism before and their new Ruto was just an actor in the political global arena.

But naysayers have argued that Ruto's policies on foreign affairs are interesting if not confusing simply because the Western envoys were cosy with the State House when the President's Ruto speeches were advocating for de-dollarisation. "Ruto has done everything asked of him by IMF and World Bank by taxing Kenyans to death, removing subsidies but on the world stage, he is against the financial system embodied by those Bretton Woods institutions," wrote a Kenyan on Twitter, Kachwanya.

He argued that when Russian troops moved to Ukraine, the Kenyan ambassador to the UN condemned Russia with a speech that brought tears to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) and Ukraine supporters' eyes, but then when Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came to Kenya recently, he was treated like a rock star.

He noted that two days ago, Russia got support from Kenya through Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Dr Alfred Mutua in his tweet condemning mutiny in the country.

"I have just spoken to Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the current news of attacks by a mercenary group. He has updated me on the situation and informed me that the Russian government is in control and "everything will be fine". I have told him of our concern and wish," tweeted Dr Mutua.

The Kenyan on Twitter wondered if any other member of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South African (BRICS) nations did that, especially the public support part.

On Climate change, a source who sort anonymity wondered if Ruto's talk on the international podiums resonated with what was happening in the country. "There is the big talk about climate change, but just recently the government has gazetted a number of forest lands." President William Ruto also revealed that African leaders are sometimes forced to attend international meetings in foreign powerful countries because of blackmail.

Speaking at the Pan-African Parliament Summit on Climate Policy and Equity in South Africa, Ruto lamented that African leaders are usually forced to attend global meetings even when there isn't any meaningful outcome.