Prezzo Ruto goes benchmarking in Ghana, and Kenyans keep calm

President William Ruto is conferred the Companion of the Order of the Star of Volta award in Ghana.[PCS]

Kenyans on Twitter have been surprisingly muted about Prezzo Bill Ruto’s recent foray abroad—the first one in a long time—when he toured Ghana for the inauguration of John Mahama’s second non-consecutive term.

That’s to suggest that Kenyans endorsed that as “essential” travel, so that Prezzo Ruto could benchmark single-term presidency. Mahama made a comeback late last year, after Ghanaians kicked him out four years earlier.

I’m not sure if Prezzo had a chance to benchmark on other elements of Ghana, other than that. Kenyans don’t need a visa to travel there.

From my recent travels to Ghana, I was so taken by its city thoroughfares as they are relatively well kept, with generous cycling and walk lanes.

Even the “bumper-to-bumper” packing of skyscrapers that has become a feature of Nairobi, once the fabled “Green city in the sun,” are missing in Accra, which one sage attributes to a historical anomaly of British colonialism.

Yes, both Ghana and Kenya were dominated by the same colonial master, but they deployed indirect rule in Ghana and most of West Africa, which allowed a modicum of traditional structures of social order.

As a settler colony, our people were faced with more direct censure from colonial administrators who had a home here. The traumas of those interactions still fester.

Finally, Ghanaian institutions are more vibrant and independent, and one facet of evidence for such optimism stems from the cadre of civil servants that Ghana has produced for world.

And Ghana, just like Kenya, is deeply afflicted by historical amnesia which explains why their major airport is named after one of the army generals who plotted the ouster of their founding Prezzo Kwame Nkurumah.