Why Ruto's administration was shaken barely two years in office

Lack of trust from the people and focusing on wrong priorities led to a near collapse of President William Ruto’s administration after Gen Z protests erupted in June.

Political analysts argue that the president got it wrong during his first year in office because he should have endeared himself to the public by pushing for more people-friendly policies instead of focusing on tax collection and debt repayment while corruption and bad governance continued.

He also faces an uphill task implementing lofty election promises, a trend that continues and two weeks ago during a tour of Nyamira county, he pledged to establish a public university in the region, against existing policy.

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Unlike his predecessors Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta who faced opposition late in their presidential terms, Ruto has suffered the ignominy of seeking help from the ODM party to steady his government that is barely two years in office.

Democratic Action Party (DAP-K) leader Eugene Wamalwa argues that the success stories attributed to President Ruto and his government since taking office were not believable.

Wamalwa says, almost all election promises were not delivered and even what appeared to work like the fertiliser subsidy programme, was soiled by fake inputs.

Change crucial services

Although the Hustler Fund was expected to be a game changer as promised by Ruto in 2022, the government failed to streamline it and admitted that it has not worked as expected.

Wamalwa further points out that most of the interventions proposed by the National Dialogue Committee at Bomas of Kenya to improve governance have so far not been implemented.

“President Uhuru Kenyatta was very sensitive to cushioning vulnerable people like women vegetable vendors and motorcycle taxi riders even when the country was dealing with Covid-19, floods, drought, locusts and many other plagues but all that was reversed after these people took over,” he says.

Prof Gitile Naituli of Multi-Media University argues that the President and Kenya Kwanza should not have tried to change almost all crucial services like the university funding model and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) which impact on the people directly.

Naituli believes that people don’t trust the president’s word anymore, a perception that is so deeply entrenched and which will require a lot of effort to change.

“In politics, it is so important to cultivate integrity because once a wrong perception is developed whether true or false, changing it becomes very difficult. You should not allow that because whatever one does even if it is for the common good becomes suspect,” he says.

He further argues that Ruto squandered an opportunity during his first year in office, to stamp authority and endear himself to the people by firmly dealing with anyone linked to graft to entrench good governance.

Probably he could have had better ratings by dealing firmly with Cabinet and Principal Secretaries allegedly involved in the fertiliser scandal, the G to G oil imports, the Kenya National Trading Corporation edible oil scandal and others now captured in the latest Auditor General’s report. That could have cultivated a lot of trust for him.

But Naituli says all is not lost because there is the opportunity to allow the new Cabinet to work, especially after bringing on board ODM party leaders.

“Can CS Oparanya be allowed to hold to account people who lent out money to non-existent persons? Can Mbadi recover money paid on loans which have never been disbursed? Can Wandayi recover Sh40 billion allegedly paid out by Kenya Pipeline Company for a loan which was never borrowed? Do they have the authority to recover the money?” He posed.

Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi (ODM) also thinks the main challenge has been the overpromising that the Kenya Kwanza team made to the people during the campaigns and the fact that Ruto is making more promises.

“He should use the calmness created through ODM joining government by not engaging in too much politics that further creates a wedge with people but use the opportunity to re-organise and address the election promises,” says Osotsi.

The senator warns of the danger of the country returning to where it was a few months ago and experiencing more resistance from the youth because of how Kenya Kwanza is managing its policies.

“That is because the president has gone back to his old ways and is running from one part of the country to the other addressing political rallies, but he is also causing more disaffection by launching projects inaugurated earlier instead of getting down to serious work with his Cabinet,” he says.

Former Nairobi Town Clerk Philip Kisia wants the president to learn how to separate politics from leadership, management and administration in a huge enterprise like Kenya, using the experience he has gained over the years as MP, assistant minister, minister, deputy president and now president.

Unless that happens, he sees no change coming soon because of the president pressing on with his old way of doing politics.

“President Jomo Kenyatta’s ministers and Permanent Secretaries were solid people. President Moi filled the gap by surrounding himself with competent people and Kibaki an astute economist, was a good manager, picking top brains and people with vast experience unlike what we saw recently,” says Kisia.

He also points at how Kibaki came up with Vision 2030, which was owned by the people because of thorough public participation unlike now, when the President forces some unpopular programmes down people’s throats.

And so Kibaki succeeded by becoming a driver of a shared vision as opposed to imposing his vision to the people while President Ruto’s shortcoming was first largely exacerbated by failure to get the right people to help him do the job.

Together with some top officials in his government, they also wasted a lot of time bashing former President Uhuru, yet Ruto had propelled himself to office using his predecessor’s weaknesses and failures.

The rear mirror approach appeared to have worked in the first few months of his administration, but Kenyans especially in social media platforms appeared tired after one year when they began asking him to explain what the government had done instead of blaming Uhuru for ruining the economy.

Naituli also thinks policies on education and health were not well thought out and contributed to the problems the President faced.

He suggests that the university funding be reverted to the old model because banning students in a county where “corruption is a national religion” cannot work.

Are we likely going to be seeing any signs of a policy shift from President Ruto? Naituli says it is highly unlikely although if given a chance to work, the new Cabinet can change things in crucial dockets. “Some of the people from ODM are fairly professional but Ruto is a very controlling manager. I don’t think he will give them a free hand,” he says.