Treacherous, rocky road to Singapore Ruto must be ready to navigate

After some twists and turns with my mouth, I managed to munch the gummy tendons and cartilages of boiled hooves. I chewed quietly, watching my father wipe sweat from his bald head. 

He smiled, then said:

“Do you know how lucky you are to be eating a meal that even Jomo Kenyatta’s children dream of?”

I shook my head in silent agreement.   

It was my father’s dream to one day become as wealthy as Kenya’s first family. In his sunset days, however, he opened up to me on Kenya’s insidious and deadly poison that killed his dream.

He shared his frustrations while working as a clerk in Nakuru town. He made several attempts to buy land and invest in real estate with his ‘little’ savings. Each time, however, the local government would deny him the opportunity.

 “The government gave members of one community, some of them my friends, opportunity to buy property. We, the communities from Western and Nyanza, were forced to ‘go back to the village.’” 

On Wednesday, November 7 1990, I had my last conversation on tribalism with Mzee Philip Oyieri Okalo, at Kisumu’s Victoria Hospital. Cancer had eaten this muscular, six foot two giant, reducing him into a miserable bag of bones. On Thursday, November 8, having exhausted all my savings, I held him and helplessly watched him die. 

If Kenya had gone the Singapore route, there would have been medical insurance to cover cancer and senior citizens like him would have survived after early diagnosis.

My father enabled me interrogate tribalism, its impact and damage on the soul of Kenya. 

Tribalism, stewed in greed and served on a plate of corruption, brought Kenya to this shameful point of dreaming Singapore; a tiny nation with a population slightly more than that of Nairobi. 

Kenya has had countless opportunities to grow and even surpass the four Asian Tigers of; Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Our failure stems from the road we took at independence, and the culture we cultivated. Kenya was hijacked by greedy, vicious thieves, conmen and obtainers who turned it into personal property.   

A cabal has since enslaved millions of Kenyans. Today, they control all key sectors of the economy, including agriculture, finance, energy, health, real estate, transportation and hospitality.

They also control gambling, and even crime.

Tragically, Kenya and Singapore started their journey to economic development almost at the same time with Kenya’s first president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta prioritizing the war against what was described as ignorance, poverty and disease. His government promised to provide water and electricity to every Kenyan home by the year 2000. 

Indigenous Kenyans took over assets left by fleeing colonialists through the Africanisation programme. The economy was smiling until the 1970s, when a cabal from Kenyatta’s Kiambu back yard took advantage of his ill health, to take full control of government and resources, opening doors for corruption. 

They initiated a systemic marginalization of other communities and regions. Communities such as the Maasai were herded out of prime land. Northern and northeastern Kenya, Eastern and Western Kenya, are still struggling to extricate themselves from actions of this group.  

In Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, a Cambridge trained first class lawyer became Singapore’s first prime minister in 1959. Lee was 36.

In Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, a once impoverished, jigger infested boy, took over as Kenya’s founding president. This Britain trained anthropologist was 66. 

Lee picked up his tiny country from the ashes of poverty, focusing his energy on education, industrialization, national discipline and progress. Jomo Kenyatta received an entity ravaged by colonial fissures, and trauma of the Mau Mau war. 

Both men became vicious dictators. However, with little resources, Lee turned Singapore into a global financial hub. Kenyatta had a team of educated individuals trained through the Tom Mboya and Julius Gikonyo Kiano’s American educational airlift programme.   

Although Kenya suffered violence from the colonialists, Singapore was hit by double tragedy. After 100 years of British rule, Britain failed to protect it during World War II from a ruthless Japanese invasion and occupation which lasted two years. 

In August 1963, Singapore seceded from the British crown and entered into a horrifying marriage with Malaysia to form the Federation of Malaysia. The union sparked a two-year social strife, ethnic animosity and street riots. The Chinese in Singapore outnumbered the Malay three to one. Malay politicians in Kuala Lumpur, fearing defilement of their heritage and political ideologies by the growing Chinese population, voted in Parliament to expel Singapore from Malaysia. 

On August 9 1965, Singapore broke away from Malaysia, gaining full independence. The country was swimming in the miasma of misery with most of its three million people jobless and living in slums. Gripped by severe water shortages, Singapore lacked natural resources, sanitation, and infrastructure. Lee Kuan Yew’s plea for international assistance was ignored. 

Singapore had to fend for herself. 

Lee connected with the developed world and convinced multinational corporations to shift their manufacturing plants to Singapore and utilize available labour. He created a safe, corruption-free environment with low taxation to attract investors. He introduced harsh laws to tame crime with graft and narcotic trade attracting death penalty. His People Action Party (PAP) proscribed labour unions, consolidating all into the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC). 

In the 1970s, while the Kenyan political elite were stealing public land and gliding through the coffee boom scandal, Singapore was developing its human resource and infrastructure. When Kenyan mafia was assassinating leaders like J.M Kariuki, Singapore was establishing technical schools and training unskilled workers in information technology, petrochemicals and electronics. The small island nation started exporting textiles, garments, and basic electronics. Soon, stuff sold in Kenya and other parts of the world had the label ‘made in Singapore’. In the 80s and 90s, it was engaging in water fabricators, logistics, biotech research, pharmaceuticals, integrated circuit design and aerospace engineering. 

While we were busy grabbing assets left by the collapsed East African Community and the mzungus who fled during the Africanisation programme, Singapore was modernizing. Today, the Port of Singapore has overtaken Hong Kong and Rotterdam to become the world’s busiest transshipment port. 

With only a zoo, night safari and a nature reserve, Singapore attracts over 20 million tourists annually. In 2025, Kenya ‘proudly’ attracted 2.4 million international tourists, yet we have some of the largest and most beautiful game parks in the world. We have amazing beaches, lakes, rivers and the Big Five. Singapore has also established successful medical and culinary tourism industries. 

Major global drug and oil manufacturing companies established bases in Singapore due to its friendly tax regime. It is now the 15th largest trading partner of the United States, Europe and South America with over 3,000 multinational corporations operating on its soil and waters. By 2023, Singapore had a higher GDP per capita than the United States. 

In Kenya, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) employs ruthless, cruel and inhuman tax collection practices, killing businesses and frightening potential international investors. It has even driven men and women into committing suicide. 

Our Blunders 

In his book, Kenya; A History since independence, Charles Hornsby traces the damage done on Kenya by tribalism and corruption. He says:

“Economically the equal of Singapore and Tunisia in 1963, in 2005 the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per head was lower than that of Chad and Mauritania. Kenya has failed to make a transition to a new model of economic development or a higher level of material benefit for its people.” 

While Singapore started with nothing, Kenya had Britain to hold its hand. The West made Kenya a strategic partner with the Kenyatta government receiving millions of dollars to compensate those who lost land to colonialists.

The cabal gobbled land in Western Kenya, the Rift Valley, Nairobi and Coast while driving thousands of the landless to occupy land belonging to other communities. By embracing tribalism and corruption, successive leaderships hampered economic growth, increased the cost of living, drained resources from essential services, and eroded public trust. 

Hornsby says that, Kenya could have “leap frogged onto a path of sustainable growth as an ‘African tiger’ but the killing of Tom Mboya in 1969 “speeded Kenya’s move towards rule by a Kikuyu Oligarchy, political and economic decay” 

The Moi Footsteps 

Vice President Daniel arap Moi was viciously fought in an attempt to stop him from ascending to power. By the time Moi took over power, says Hornsby, the Kikuyu had already eaten most of the “fruits of Uhuru”.

Moi made notable steps in infrastructure, building dual carriageways to Limuru and Thika, completed Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Eldoret Airport and Moi International Airport Mombasa, and made steps in education and environment . Moi’s 24 year ‘pastoralist’ era was replaced by Kibaki’s Mount Kenya (Kikuyu, Embu, Meru), era. Kibaki’s regime became a Mount Kenya centred government perpetuating what Michela Wrong calls; Our Turn to Eat. 

Kibaki revived the industrialization dream with the launch of Vision 2030. He encouraged Kenyans to pay taxes which would help us develop our country without relying on heavy external borrowing. 

During my tour of duty at the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) as public relations manager, I designed a mobilisiation programme to help Kenya attain rapid social-economic development.  However, the greedy clique had their eyes on the 100 billion shillings-plus the Fund had mobilised. They also ogled at the National Bank of Kenya (NBK).  

On April 9 2009, I prepared a press statement saying:

“If well managed without political interference, NSSF is one of the sure vehicles that the government can use to realise the Vision 2030 dream.“

The statement was read to the media on behalf of the NSSF board by COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli who staged a fierce fight to save NSSF and NBK. 

Kibaki had a golden opportunity to turn Kenya round. However, he failed the patriotic and national test by ignoring the expansion of the Mombasa, Kisumu, Busia, Malaba highway. Instead, he built Thika superhighway, the road to his village. Western Kenya was once more shortchanged. Uganda, being Kenya’s biggest trading partner, should have made Kibaki prioritize the Northern Corridor.  

The failed 1982 coup led Kenya on an insecure path. After Moi left the scene, the Kikuyu leadership sabotaged the Constitution review process at the Bomas of Kenya with John Michuki, a powerful minister saying that with Moi out of power, the agitation for the new Constitution was no longer necessary. 

Hornsby says that the Kenyan elite control both wealth and power. He emphasizes that “the same families appear to run the country and the same arguments over land, ethnicity, presidential authority, corruption and foreign intervention seem to continue decade after decade.”

Hornsby argues that the struggle for power and resources coalesced into a three way cleavage, epitomized by three ethnic groups; the Kikuyu, Luo and Kalenjin.

“The first two decades of independence saw the incorporation, on junior terms, of the Kalenjin into Kenyatta’s Kikuyu centered alliance and the gradual marginalisation of the Luo, alongside the embedding of a series of advantages for the Kikuyu community.” 

Kibaki’s Vision 2030 was replaced by Uhuru’s Big Four Agenda.

Uhuru seemed determined to fix housing, urban road and rail transport.

Unfortunately, each new regime kills the dreams of its predecessor. The Big Four Agenda, just like Vision 2030 died.

Now, President William Ruto vows his determination to take Kenya to where Singapore has been the last two decades. He will have to take a route tougher than that taken by Lee Kuan Yew six decades ago. Ruto must be ready, willing and capable of dismantling the grip that greed and corruption has on Kenya’s jugular. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) estimates that Kenya loses Sh608 billion annually to corruption. 

Lee Kuan Yew, in his book From Third World to First; The Singapore story: 1965-2000, explains the sacrifices he made to turn Singapore around:

“We had to create a new kind of economy; try new methods and schemes never tried before anywhere else in the world” 

Lee’s greatest asset was the trust and confidence the people had in him. He never allowed misgovernment and corruption to take root.

By the 1990s, Singapore had become one of the largest financial centres of the world, with its foreign exchange market ranking fourth after London, New York, and only slightly behind Tokyo.

“The foundations for our financial centre were the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and a stable, competent, and honest government that pursued sound macroeconomic policies, with budget surpluses almost every year,” says Lee 

Lee empowered the citizens of Singapore, giving each a stake in the country’s future. He built a home-owning society by ensuring all workers and soldiers owned homes.

In 1963, when Singapore was part of the Malaysia federation, he established the Housing and Development Board (HDB), an equivalent to Ruto’s affordable housing. 

The colonial government had also started the Central Provident Fund (CPF) as a single savings scheme for retirement; five per cent of wages contributed by the employee with a matching five per cent by the employer.

“As a pension scheme, it was inadequate. Keng Swee and I decided to expand this compulsory savings scheme into a fund that would enable every worker own a home,” says Lee. Keng Swee was Singapore’s defence minister.   

Lee says that his team had a deep sense of mission to establish a clean and effective government.

“We made sure, from the day we took office in June 1959, that every dollar in revenue would be properly accounted for and would reach the beneficiaries at the grassroots as one dollar.”

Lee established the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) which formed a formidable reputation for sniffing out corruption. In his fight against corruption, he lost close friends. Ministers were fired; some fled the country. His close friend, Teh Cheang Wan, minister for national development was accused of taking bribes between 1981 and 1982. He tried to sway investigators after Lee refused to see him. He committed suicide on December 15, 1986.

“We had established a climate of opinion that looked upon corruption in public office as a threat to society. Teh preferred to take his life rather than face disgrace and ostracism,” Lee says. 

Today, as President Ruto shouts from the cliff about the journey to Singapore, he stirs up deep emotions on the historic injustices he must address. He must convince the weak, hungry and impoverished millions, with blistered bare feet, to hold his hands and jump onto the rocky road to Singapore that is strewn with broken glass, thorns and sharp nails.