Our salvation will come when we know Ruto is not the enemy

I know it is not easy, but let us reason together. In analysing what ails Kenya, President William Ruto is elevated as the chief culprit. But our political salvation will begin when we realise that Ruto is not the enemy—our bane is the systemic weaknesses.

Surprisingly, ordinary Kenyans believe that all our problems will end if Dr Ruto leaves office. This was the thought pattern that culminated in the 'Ruto Must Go' hashtag during last month's Gen Z anti-government protests.

A broader narrative is that Ruto should resign with his whole government. The advocates of this approach hid behind the Constitution. But getting a solution from a document that is part of our woes will be challenging. Similarly, the call for all elected representatives to go home and allow the people to elect a fresh bunch of leaders who will supposedly serve the people's interests is equally hysterical.

Methinks this is a paranoiac call from persons with little understanding and disregard for structural politics. Structural politics defines how institutions and groups in a system relate and influence each other.

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Structural politics can align systems, regulations, laws, and norms in the interests of some people or institutions. It is a capitalist system that can enable an exploitative environment at all levels.

Other arguments revolve around the call for President Ruto to prosecute all corrupt public officials. One of my followers on the X platform posted, “Ruto should arrest corrupt people in government, recover the public resources looted, and shape the country for economic, social, and political stability.” Isn't this thinking a display of obliviousness? It isn't easy to convince an ordinary Kenyan that such expectations are out of order.

Our political salvation will begin once we agree that corruption and all its attendant challenges facing Kenya did not start with Ruto and the Kenya Kwanza government. Corruption will not end soon unless we change our mindset.

The elevation of our presidents as ‘daemons’ behind all our problems is not new—it has endured across regimes. In 2002, Kenyans believed that President Daniel Moi and his 24-year rule were the political ‘daemons’. He handed power to Mwai Kibaki amid unprecedented mockery, even from his erstwhile friends.

Kibaki took office with a promise to end corruption and clean up the ‘Moi’s mess’. A few months into office, the systemic corruption stuck its legs on the plane. It breached with impunity like a Humpback whale—the Anglo-leasing scandal and others that were to follow dwarfed all previous political grafts.

By 2007, President Kibaki was viewed as the lord of all our problems. Kenyans butchered each other when he was sworn into his second term; post-election violence that led to the formation of the grand coalition government.

The grand coalition was seen as a magic bullet into the system. We did not go far before the so-called ‘grand corruption’ shot up. The country, for instance, experienced unprecedented shortages of food and oil due to well-connected individuals and politicians making deals for their own interests.

In 2013, we thought the distribution of resources and generational gaps were our bane. The 2010 Constitution crafters sneaked devolution into our constitution only to realise later that they created 47 leakages in our system. Theft and corruption were finally devolved to counties, and it became even harder to audit and trace graft.

In 2022, the so-called hustler enthusiasts thought Uhuru Kenyatta and dynasties were the problem. They were wrong! In 2024, just two years later, what has happened has made former president Uhuru look like an angel.

What is the way forward, then? We must have a sober conversation and call for the adjustment of structures that burden us with high costs of living while creating an environment for systemic corruption to thrive.

Finally, as we focus on corruption, we should not forget issues of differential growth opportunities that breed crime, conflict, absence of correct exploitation and redistribution of resources, persistent bad governance, political clientelism and poor infrastructures that grip our efforts to develop as a nation and individually.

Dr Ndonye is a senior lecturer at Kabarak University’s Department of Mass Communication