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The Nairobian

Ruto's communication team should now control his narrative

Opinion

By Leonard Khafafa | Jul 30, 2024

President William Ruto’s political vicissitudes speak to the fickleness of Kenya’s electorate.

They reveal how easy it is to go from hero to villain and back again. Clearly, the country’s politics is not as mature as had been thought all along. It is not entirely driven by issues but by narratives; especially strong narratives that carry the day.

It seems the President was set up to fail even before the 2022 national elections. The narrative woven by his detractors then was that he was untrustworthy. Sentiments expressed publicly to the effect that the country should not be left to thieves were rife then. As were others that repeatedly drummed it into people’s minds that some leading politicians were commensurate liars. Still, other choreographed narratives spoke of incompetence.

It does not come as a surprise that the recent Gen Z push for public accountability has placed Ruto at its centre. It has accused him of mismanaging the economy whilst blaming those around him of yet to be substantiated allegations of theft from public coffers. Perhaps the lowest point for the President was when a journalist asked him when he would stop lying to Kenyans.

Yet evidence points to the polar opposite. Ruto inherited a tanking economy. By dint of his efforts, disastrous debt-default has been forestalled. The economy is on the rebound judging by many metrics of performance. Some of these are the strengthening of the country’s currency, the containment of inflation within the desired limits, the stabilisation of petroleum product prices and the affordability of the country’s national staple.

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It is a publicly acknowledged fact that Kenya loses approximately 30 per cent of its budget to corruption. Former president Mwai Kibaki was the first person to admit as much. His successor Uhuru Kenyatta said the country lost Sh2 billion to corruption annually which, at the time, was a third of the budget. Yet to hear Gen Zs and their supporters lament, one would imagine that corruption started with the Kenya Kwanza administration.

To those able to view Kenya’s politics without jaundiced eyes, these laments speak to a clear case of confirmation bias; where Kenyans have been carefully railroaded into thinking that Ruto’s administration is incorrigibly corrupt. Evidently, following a well scripted narrative, the ability to reason has been vacated and replaced by raw emotion.

How else does one explain the vacuous “Ruto must go” chants? Why would Kenyans take a charitable view towards the previous Jubilee administration which, according to the Auditor General, misappropriated over Sh1 trillion in public funds, but breathe sulphur and brimstone against the perceived slights of the Ruto administration which is hardly 22 months old?

Perhaps the answer lies in the ability to communicate succinctly. Ruto has acknowledged the disconnect between what the public believes and reality. It boils down to his communications team and the messaging to the public. Not only does it bring to question their ability to highlight the Kenya Kwanza’s administration’s achievements but also how to counter negative narratives by the President’s detractors. A good starting point would be to have the President talk less. As the Bible says in Proverbs 10:19, “in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.”

-Mr Khafafa is a public policy analyst