President William Ruto
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- Though one would have expected him to take on them for frustrating his administration’s efforts to fight mega corruption scandals, he instead appeared helpless as he threw his hands in air. He posed: What do you want me to do? Kenyans interpreted this to mean they were on their own.
- Since he assumed office, President Ruto has made great strides. When a plot to steal Sh3.7 billion from the Global Fund meant to buy and supply mosquito nets to the downtrodden Kenyans was brought to his attention, he immediately nipped the plot in the bud.
- He fired the senior officials at the Ministry of Health and Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) who had been adversely mentioned.
President William Ruto has in the recent past shown that he was truly committed to walk the talk in slaying the dragon of corruption.
He was not only talking tough but more importantly escalating these matters by calling on the anti-graft bodies to immediately commence the probes and ensure the culprits are brought to justice.
The President’s interventions have been resonating very well with the masses.
This is because this was a departure from Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency.
Uhuru was known for talking tough but without taking any tangible action.
There was a time he said that Sh2 billion was being stolen every day in Kenya but this matter ended there.
He had earlier shocked Kenyans when he hosted the heads of anti-graft bodies at State House Nairobi.
Though one would have expected him to take on them for frustrating his administration’s efforts to fight mega corruption scandals, he instead appeared helpless as he threw his hands in air. He posed: What do you want me to do? Kenyans interpreted this to mean they were on their own.
Since he assumed office, President Ruto has made great strides. When a plot to steal Sh3.7 billion from the Global Fund meant to buy and supply mosquito nets to the downtrodden Kenyans was brought to his attention, he immediately nipped the plot in the bud.
He fired the senior officials at the Ministry of Health and Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) who had been adversely mentioned.
He also called for the prosecution of the culprits.
The President have also been cracking the whip to streamline other sectors, the latest ones being Athi Water Works Development Agency, Rift Valley Water Works and Kenya Forest Service (KFS).
At Water Works, the heads of the two agencies are among top officials being investigated.
At KFS, he endorsed the decision of the board to send 29 managers and forest rangers packing. Those culpable should face the law.
At this juncture, allow me to turn to the narrative of Ruto’s well-known critics. They wanted Kenyans to believe that there was nothing to be proud of. Corruption is rife and President Ruto is just ‘watching’. He does nothing to reverse the trend. So, he took you for a ride during the campaigns.
The top leadership of the opposition Azimio La Umoja-OKA coalition is the leading peddler of these claims.
The coalition is yet to prove these claims despite receiving a strong back-up from a section of the mainstream houses championing their course.
Recently, one of the media outlets got extremely embarrassed and was left with an egg on the face.
This is after publishing a story that sought to implicate the Trade and Investment Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria and his Agriculture counterpart Mithika Linturi into a cooking oil scandal.
Kuria was thier main target and he would not take this matter lightly. It turned out that this was a scandal that never was. This is after he challenged the authors and the management to prove thier claims by providing documentary evidence. They did’t respond. They chickened out because they had no iota of truth.
Appearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Kuria reiterated that the law had been followed to the letter and spirit in awarding this tender.
All the relevant public organs gave this process a clean bill of health, including public procurement regulatory authority (PPRA).
We promised Kenyans during the campaigns that we will give priority to the fight against hunger. This is what we are doing but our enemies cannot see this.
Today, just go to your nearest supermarket. You will find that the price of a litre salad cooking oil has dropped from Sh400 to Sh200.
Some days later, CS Kuria fired a new salvo at this media house stating that the management was furthering the course of the Azimio and its de facto leader Raila Odinga. They started doing this work during the campaigns. The outgoing ‘Handshake’ government led President Uhuru Kenyatta had hired and totally compromised them to support the candidature of Raila Odinga.
This flew in the face of work ethics that required them to be objective, accurate, fair and truthful.
We want to remind them that their project lost. Dr William Ruto whom you used to throw mud at him is now the president of Kenya. We ask you to stop bismirching the name of President Ruto and his government. If you fail to heed this call, we will be left with one option: to defend ourselves.
In yester years, Azimio leader Raila Odinga had curved a niche of being a whistleblower. He had indeed become a household during the reign of President Mwai Kibaki and his successor Uhuru Kenyatta.
He had unearthed and exposed a number of mega corruption scandals.
But one thing remained clear. He would play this role when he was fighting and pushing these governments to succumb to his demands.
Once he had fought his way and occupied his seat at the high table where the national cake was being shared, he always become contented. He would no longer blow the whistle.
We know today he is harboring a major grudge with the current government of President Ruto.
As such, he could have been in forefront of exposing the so called corruption scandals if they ever existed.
He would not dare to do this. Reason? He knew he would end up being embarrassed and ashamed because of peddling outright lies.
But many Kenyans believed those cooking these stories fully enjoyed his blessing.
Reason? This card was helping him to further his political course. By painting him in bad light, he hoped this would make Dr Ruto soften his stance and invite him for talks.
It has dawned on him that Dr Ruto is a hard nut to crack. He cannot succumb to these tricks designed to blackmail and intimidate him.
For now, Raila’s remarks and body language points to this. He wants to make peace with the President. Has realized this when it is too late?
He is desperately looking for an opportunity to sit down with President Ruto.
He had revealed that the President of Tanzania Samia Suluhu was in Nairobi and she spent two nights. He fell short of saying he is the one who had invited her.
He said the purpose of her visit was initiate talks between him and president Ruto.
But this did not come to pass. She left before meeting the president.
Here, Raila’s seemed to blow hot and cold. On one hand he cast a picture that the President is now ready for dialogue, but on other hand one would ask. Why did Suluhu left before meeting Dr Ruto if that was the case?
Many believe the other political card that Raila was out to play is this.
Dr Ruto was ready for dialogue. However, the top guns of ruling Kenya Kwanza government were vehemently opposed to talks.
This is because they feared losing their jobs if Raila joined the government.
It worth noting. Raila lost the election to Dr Ruto. After being declared the winner by the IEBC chairman, Raila filed a petition at the Supreme Court of Kenya to challenge his victory. He lost the case and the court upheld the Dr Ruto’s victory.
Also, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka confirmed this when he spoke in Machakos during the Saba Saba demonstrations. He stated. Our eader Raila Odinga lost but Ruto won with a slight margin of 60,000 votes. This explains why the country is divided in the middle. We therefore call upon Ruto to respond to our calls for dialogue.
With this, President Ruto does not owe Raila any debt.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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