Before, President William Ruto has set up an image of a politically clever and perfect legislator that political savants accepted was turning into a doyen of Kenyan governmental issues.
President Ruto’s political career has been on a meteoric rise for 27 years, culminating in his euphoric victory in August 2022.
His bright star has made other politicians—young and old—envious. The president was elected as Eldoret North MP at the age of 29, defeating the wealthy and more experienced former area legislator Reuben Cheshire.
Since then, he has won every election with great success. In 2002 and 2007, he was elected as the country’s member of parliament with the highest score of more than 70% of votes cast. His victory as president in August 2022 was historic because no other candidate had ever won the presidency on the first attempt.
His predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, tried in 2002 and supported Kibaki in 2007, but he lost in 2013. The late Mwai Kibaki tried twice in 1992 and 1997, but he won in 2002.
President Ruto was the first politician in Kenyan history to politically undermine Mount Kenya’s political hegemony and end the custom that the region does not vote for any candidate outside of central Kenya.
In the 2022 races, the locale rebelled against their boss Uhuru Kenyatta who was supporting Azimio pioneer Raila Odinga and on second thought casted a ballot Ruto to a man.
In his success, President Ruto almost doused legislative issues of casting a ballot along ancestral lines when he got votes from Kenya’s eight districts giving his triumph a public underwriting.
However, the events of the past month have positioned the president as a politician who may have lost his political composure and is now looking for balance in the wake of a youth uprising.
Protests organized by Generation Z across the country have revealed President Ruto’s weaknesses, forcing him to seek support from the opposition in order to regain his political composure and stabilize his presidency.
What has become of Ruto, the consummate politician who has never lost a political duel and is endowed with the gift of gab? This is the one million dollar question.
Dismas Mokua, a political analyst, believes that President Ruto has been able to maintain Kenya’s political, economic, and security stability despite facing turbulence brought on by protests initiated by Gen Z.
Mokua also believes that managing a state requires high levels of capacity and competence in statecraft. There is no evidence that President Ruto has lost his composure. In accordance with Kenya’s national and public interests, President Ruto is managing the expectations of citizens, partners, and stakeholders.
On Tuesday, youths pledged that they would hold another in the series of demonstrations that have become weekly nationwide. As Kenyans enter the new week, there is uncertainty as a result of the country’s youngest adults’ vicious dismissal of the president’s half cabinet, describing it as a case of recycling unwanted politicians.
His historic and exhilarating victory as president over 20 months ago has paradoxically become a poisonous chalice for his political life. What began as an uprising against Finance Bill 2024 has grown into demonstrations that have as their primary objective the removal of President Ruto for the past month.
The public’s outrage toward the president persists despite Ruto’s concessions, which include rejecting the Finance Bill, dismissing his Cabinet, and promising significant changes to the government.
Similar to the giraffes that were stranded on an island in Lake Baringo when the water levels rose and had to be rescued because their lives were in danger three years ago, the president is trying to get out of the political muck.
Seemingly trying to grab political straws, the Head of State and his allies have named a number of individuals and the causes of the public outrage. These demonstrations have taken place all over the country, with major ones taking place in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu, Kakamega, Nyeri, and other towns to show how angry people are about politics.
While some of his allies have accused the former President Kenyatta and his deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, his government spokesman Isaac Mwaura recently addressed residents in Nakuru and pointed the finger at the United States (US) Ford Foundation.
He also blamed the Russian government. Ruto, the Deputy President, ran an elaborate campaign during the campaigns that appeared to be aimed at capturing Kenyan aspiration. Prior to the elections, Ruto visited all 47 counties to get their opinions and eventually signed county charters with all the devolved units that reflected residents’ needs.
Later, he used the charters with his campaign team to create what they called “The Plan,” which served as his manifesto. Ruto’s task was already done because there was complete public participation regarding the Kenyan’s goals. Where was William Ruto unsuccessful?
Where did the beating of the Head of State by the rain begin? Gachagua was perplexed when he addressed the media in Mombasa last month and inquired about the state of their government under Ruto. Gachagua questioned, “What have we done that we were well-received after our victory but have become so unpopular in just 20 months?”
He blamed Public Knowledge Administration Chief General Noordin Hajji of not preparation the President on the public state of mind in the country. But not in Kenya, where William Samoei Ruto’s political wing was expanding at breakneck speed.
In just 20 months, the President had established a mythical status on the continent that could easily have made him an African diplomat. In urban areas across the globe, Ruto had been invited with such a lot of regard and deference from Washington to Tokyo, and from Geneva to London Johannesburg.
The zenith of his victorious worldwide qualifications is his Might visit to the US on the greeting of President Joe Biden. The unremitting Gen Z showings and the police killings of the protestors have inspired worldwide interest.
Today, both nationally and internationally, the President’s image is rapidly deteriorating. Mokua stated that President Ruto must seek and secure support from citizens, stakeholders, and politicians with significant political capital in order to manage expectations.
“Drawing in residents, partners and legislators in no way recommend a pioneer who has lost balance yet focuses to his ability to answer public tension, oblige dissimilar perspectives and participate in cross fertilization of thoughts with the sole expectation of guaranteeing Kenya’s going concern status,” said Mokua.
Any visionary and spry pioneer Mokua noticed, should answer natural changes and remain alive to residents’ inclinations as caught by the public state of mind, keep up with ability to take agonizing and disliked choices other than participating in ordinary approach surveys to keep the State running. But once more, what took place with William Ruto?
