Cut Ruto some slack, he became Kenya's CEO during hard times

President William Ruto during a past event at State House, Nairobi. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

For starters, Bill took up the CEO job in the middle of one of the worst droughts in the country's history. After five seasons of poor rainfall, the number of mouths that Bill was expected to feed rose from 3.5 million to 4.4 million.

By the time Bill was sworn in, Russians were raining bombs on Ukraine, cutting off vital global food and fuel supply lines.

The shockwaves of the roaring tanks and exploding bombs reverberated across the world, and Bill suddenly found himself scratching his head on where to buy food and fuel to power Eastern Africa's largest economy.

Suddenly the president had bigger bills to pay while still servicing multi-trillion debts whose demand notes were overflowing in his in-tray. Things did not get any better with the plummeting value of the Kenyan shilling which pushed the prices of basic commodities past the roof top.

Increased demand for dollars outstripped supply as Kenya's weekly foreign exchange reserves that at one point, were only enough to pay a few months of imports.

Like Britain's Winston Churchill who took the helm amidst a blistering World War II, Bill was taking over a country in the middle of a global economic crisis.

Taking a cue from the economic hard times, fellows that gave Bill a run for his money in the race for CEO's position started claiming that that they would have made better CEOs.

It did not help matters when the new CEO had to bite the bullet and make a number of painful decisions-from cancelling tax waivers to ending a number of subsidies.

Like US Franklin Roosevelt taking over a battered economy at the height of a ravaging economic depression, Bill knew exactly where to place his bet: economic reforms and agriculture.

It is now six months after Dr Ruto took up the CEO job, and some of his workers still expect him to be a miracle worker of some sort-turning water to wine and stones to bread on his first sitting at the head of the dinner table.

Kenya might have to cut its new CEO some slack: He is a good CEO trying his best to run the ship in the middle of hard times.