Grounded President: How anti-tax protests have finally kept Ruto at home

President William Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto arrive at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Washington, D.C on May 22, 2024. [PCS]

The President is grounded. His penchant for notching up air miles has been tamed thanks to political upheaval that threatens his tenure in office.

For the first time in many months, President William Ruto has been nailed to his desk confronting the demands of a country currently in the throes of a financial and political crisis.

As a consequence of the anti-government protests that have rocked the country for the past month, his current reality is a departure from what it used to be months ago when he ruled the skies.

For a President who stacked up visits to over 45 cities in 38 countries in his first year in office and extended this to 62 visits to 38 countries in 20 months as of July 9,2024, Ruto is now busy at home.

And he is dealing with the aftermath of youth-led protests and formulating ways to address all that is wrong in his administration.

The protests that started by calling for the rejection of the now-withdrawn Finance Bill 2024 morphed into chants for change in government- and he had to act, quickly.

On Friday, Ruto hosted an X Space debate where he came face to face with the ire of Kenyans who sought to hold him to account for his administrations excesses.

Key among the issues that he had to confront was his frequent travels at a time the country is struggling with high cost of living.

The forum hosted at least 100,000 Kenyans who were eager to establish why the President prioritised foreign travel over a restitching of his administration’s governance fabric.

“I have heard my good sister asking what was the President doing in Germany, France and America. I want to explain that we are signing 19 new bilateral labour agreements that will give an opportunity for Kenyans who want to work abroad an opportunity to export their talent. This includes engineers, accountants HR managers, workers in different fields,” said Ruto.

His feet were also held to the fire over police killings of at least 41 people during the anti-government protests and abductions.

One user Osama_Otero, narrated his ordeal at the hands of the police shortly after he was abducted during the protests and pushed the President to explain what he would do about the abductions.

“That is not right… the era of extra judicial killings is no longer with us. There is a new problem called abduction, and it is something that I am going to exercise my mind on because the police have clear rules of how to arrest citizens if they have to,” responded Ruto.

He was also taken to task on issues of broken promises, disregard for the constitution and the lack of accountability within his government, among other issues.

An hour before his engagement on X, Ruto addressed the nation from State House, where he yielded to some demands from the youth, among them, to reorganise his government and tame wastage.

The President directed that 47 loss-making State corporations be dissolved, in a move that Ruto explained would see their operational and maintenance costs eliminated, as their functions are integrated into line ministries.

He also dropped the pending appointment of 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries and scrapped budgetary allocation the offices of First Lady, Deputy President's wife and that of the spouse of the Prime Cabinet Secretary.

In his address, Ruto noted that the number of government advisers would be reduced by 50 per cent. He, however, failed to announce an anticipated Cabinet reshuffle.

Foreign policy analyst Prof Macharia Munene acknowledges the need for the President to stay “grounded” until his affairs and that of his administration are put in order.

“The domestic fires caught President Ruto unaware. There were signs of upheaval but clearly his advisors chose to ignore them. When the protests exploded, he looked poor and bad. With his tenure in office at stake, he knows it would not be the best thing to be seen globetrotting,” he told The Standard.

“I am sure the President will resume his trips but next time he will be more careful about how. For now, he doesn’t want to be seen as giving the impression that being out of the country is more important than solving Kenya’s problems.”

Three days prior, the President was in the hot seat as he addressed the country through an interview with the mainstream media following weeks of unrest. 

In a bare-knuckle joint interview with leading television stations KTN News, Citizen and NTV, the President was at pains to convince the masses that he was worthy of the presidency amidst all the accusations leveled against him.

In the sit down with Eric Latiff, Joe Ageyo and Linus Kaikai, Ruto had fought off claims of his frequent foreign travels being pegged on his self-aggrandizing agenda.

In his defense, Ruto said that every trip he has made was of benefit to the country.

“I see people asking why did I go to China, Europe and the USA…when I went to China we got money to equip 70 technical colleges. Today the contract has been signed and the equipment is being manufactured. We also got money to build a dam to serve Bomet and Kericho counties. We also got an additional Sh30 billion to build roads in Kirinyaga, Nyandarua and eight other constituencies in Kenya,” said the President.

He added: “When I went to America, we got a billion-dollar facility to be built in Naivasha. It’s going to be the biggest data center in Africa, funded by the UAE working with Microsoft and Kenya.”

Ruto said deliberations between the two nations would also see Kenya become the only country in Africa to benefit from the manufacturing of computer chips.

Notably, President Ruto’s last major foreign engagement came in the form of the G7 summit in Apulia, Italy where he called for Africa's access to concessional, long-term and agile finance, and a greater voice and role in decision-making.

The engagement in Italy came against the backdrop of a storm that the President had kick up because of his State visit to the USA.

The public got riled up over his expenditure after claims emerged that he spent Sh200 million to charter a plane for the visit.

He would later deny the allegations, stating that he only spent Sh10 million after some "friends of Kenya" co-sponsored the trip.

He did not disclose the identity of the friends.