President Ruto Vs Kenya’s governance dilemma at a glance

Op-Ed: President William Ruto is a statesman, an African child born from a humble background, raised from a humble village of East African Nation Kenya.

Dr.  Ruto who has positioned himself strategically in lines of symmetry of Kenya’s political landscape has been in Kenya’s political matrix and spectrum for now decades.

Dr. Ruto in one of his testimonies desired to allude to the wanainch of Kenya and Africa at large how he used to go to school with empty stomach and bear feet, how poor the health centers , education setup and infrastructures were in Kenya at the time.

He was giving these  testimonies in order to inspire us the youth and to shape the mindset of wanainch to always work hard and love our God with passion to actualize our dreams as we move about with our lives and aspirations.

He equally remembered how his father bought his first shoes, perhaps he was also at one time not putting on clean school uniforms, if he did, an old and faded one that he would wear for either a whole year or for two years. He was branded a poor village folk who poignantly through determination, dedication, sacrifice, tolerance, endurance, patience, resilience, persistence and with power of solidarity navigated all odds that nature would offer him to ascend to the throne of Kenya’s presidency, as a hustler!

Seemingly, Dr. Ruto is a servant leader, a disciplined leader and a leader who values good governance practices, a leader who listens to his people, a leader who takes precedence in others calls, a leader who respects his seniors as well his juniors. His demonstration to navigate all plots of intrigue within his circles is a clear testament that he is a man of rule of law but not as many would want to portray him to be.

The day Dr. Ruto introduced H.E Gen. Museveni as the father of the region during his swearing in ceremony was the day I saw how God has blessed Dr. Ruto with political wisdom!

Therefore, as a good son of the soil of African child, as a statesman,  it’s neither a crime nor abomination for our president to work with president Ruto as his comrade and a son whom he has nurtured in different ways as a father of the region on many strategic interests of which one is being East African federation that our president, late Julius Nyerere of Tanzania envisioned together with Kenyan founding fathers like Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki , Uhuru Kenyatta etc, etc…

President Ruto has mastered the political dots and terrain of Kenya / Africa as well as its geometrical logarithms to mitigate swinging of political proxy pendulum of his policies, that his opponents would also want to suppress through descent. His dilemma perhaps is how tomorrow breaks even!

Accordingly, as a statesman he has lead Kenyan people as a deputy President of Kenya, now as a president. Much as his challenges are many within his own table where his tea is placed, likewise, his underwriters under the table would want to share the same tea with him on the same table, hence the dilemma getting complex.

When I was in primary in 1980s and secondary in 1990s, I was an ardent student who liked to learn deeper about the elementary history of EA. Likewise, Questions about the most industrialized countries in East Africa Was always skewed towards Kenya,  Kenya is Uganda’s entry point to the sea as we all know , as a landlocked country we can’t do away with it…!

We need Kenya as Kenya needs us! It’s political symbiosis. As an economically as well as strategic political ally in terms of sharing security intelligence and what have you to avoid any eminent aggression to the historical EA countries..

Therefore, a peaceful neighbor is a peaceful environment.

Kenya’s protest about Financial Bill 2024

In the past few days Kenyans took to the streets to protest against the financial bill 2024 which was successfully passed by the Kenyan parliament.

This subsequently would give way to the president, Dr. Ruto to sign and eventually this would become a law meaning Kenyans would see themselves paying additional taxes on top of many other taxes that the Kenyan wanainch claim to have been paying.

Quite aware that, the significance of paying taxes is all about provision of effective and efficient service delivery to the citizens of a particular Nation, and the recipients being the wanainch themselves, this became an eminent dilemma we saw a cross section of Kenyans taking to the streets seeking for tax reforms and overhaul of Kenyan constitution as well as demanding for vacation of Kenyan parliament and Dr. Ruto from statehouse.

Hence, has Kenyan media been silent about reporting corruption, poor governance practices to Kenyans? Or giving Kenyans accountability on the affairs of Kenyans on periodic manner? Has the Kenyan media been concealing corruption tendencies of Kenyan leaders to spontaneously burst into violence and hooliganism, banditry,? Have Kenyans learnt nothing and forgotten northing from the post violent election demonstrations of 2007 and others whereof thousands died on the hands of Kenyan leaders whose personalities were at one moment being summoned by the ICC for likely election genocide?

How did the Kenyans reach here?

Are Kenyans generally violent people in East Africa or Kenyans are too much into tribalism, politics of identity?

Was there an invisibility sentiment in orchestrating against the finance bill 2024 or  Kenyan youths a.k.a Gen Z is a new pressure group / movement that has emerged to now deal with Kenyan affairs that would wish to eliminate impunity in Kenyan governance system! Or the wanainch crossed the boarder line of sectarianism, tribalism, nepotism, religious doctrines, & philosophical figured elements of structured political identity?

Have Kenyans gotten united as one force under Gen Z to abolish the finance bill 2024, or they will get disintegrated hereafter in 2027 when Kenyans shall be going for general elections?

Why did Kenyan legitimate advocacy, peaceful protest or demonstration turn rowdy, destructive, violent,  targeting state actors , Uganda house and what have you ! and at the same time willing to take the parliament of Kenya hostage as well as attempting to attack Dr. Ruto from his State house ? From the video clips, why were the wanainch demanding president Ruto to vacate the state house after snatching the parliament *mace* , tearing Kenyan flag, carrying away the Kenyan court of arm etc,etc…!

By taking away the mace, as an instrument of authority, power of Kenyan constitution became obsolete!  shall Kenyan rioters  apologize to Ruto, parliament and other Kenyan wanainch who never took part in the barbaric act ? Or they assumed to represent a bigger Kenyan population out there?

Now that Dr. Ruto has conceded shall breaking barriers of the their intentional peaceful protest that turned as a death trap, destructive, abusive of others rights be forgiven Or it was the effect of failure by the leadership of Kenya that became blatantly adamant to listen to the calls of the wanainch for them to cross the red line! has governance doctrine in Africa become obsolete? are Kenyans trying to tell the world that they can’t engage in dialogue, peaceful resolutions,  consultations, declaration resolutions, amendments, memorandums as tools of solving political ideology or differences rather than violence!

This is the dilemma the author is getting insensitive about. Shall violence therefore be used by  Kenyans as a tool of solving  administrative differences or arriving at concessions to meet the demands of citizenry or they believe it’s trough duress and taking leaders hostage,  insulting, abusing , disrespecting them that shall bear fruits to their desires as a means of realizing the fundamentals of human rights other than peaceful protests!  What happens to protests that culminate to criminality!  Many more questions could be asked ! Hence recipe for dilemma.

Are Kenyans aware about the failed states in Africa especially in Northern Africa, Western Africa, or other parts of the world to date ? This dilemma shall get to the nerves when we all shall reach there.

A society that embraces violence as a tool of solving problems is not only myopic but destined to destruction, indiscipline and is prone to acts of piracy, banditry, loss of innocent lives, and gross human rights abuses that we actually witnessed happen on 26th June, 2026.

Consequently, has Dr. Ruto’s humility been shaped by the resultant effects and outcomes of the past protests? Did he manage to let go because at one time he was a protagonist in the same field and has learnt its merits and demerits? Or he is now a big brother, born again, who has grown from being a hustler, cow boy, ghetto boy to a statesman who can now within forty eight hours accept defeat and is able to concede in the face of peace! Bravo president.

Did Dr. Ruto realize his mistake immediately after the taking away of the mace from the Kenyan parliament or he failed to mute the violence from the bud?

Was the president in a total dilema of giving timely orders as CIC commander in chief to quell down violence that in a fortnight was evident leading to clobbering down the Nations institutions or he was betrayed by his security cycles who were the actors and contributors to the protesters? Many theories give rise to reluctance of security to compel and restrain the protesters.

The reluctance of Kenyan security, complacency unpatriotic images seen and aiding the protesters instead with some water and juice speaks volumes in the willingness of security fraternity to avert the then protests from escalation. The dilemma therein.

Therefore, ” is Dr. Ruto incompetent as other political analysts put it for failing to quell demonstration and immediately conceding”? or Dr. Ruto is a key servant leader who had learnt lessons from his past mistakes and was mindful about playing his cards well this time or he was worried about loosing more men , women and Youth during the protests if it persisted ! Or he looked at the consequences of these protests, even up to an extent of pulling down a powerful government eg. Sudan, Egypt, Syria etc… Perhaps he was aware that protests if not well managed may surprise you, can easily lead to genocide, or fall of government, because human beings have turned to be unpredictable and easily take the direction of hooligans, banditry at the expense of laxity in security arrangements.

Therefore, his dilemma became part of his trait and wisdom to remain calm and  in control as a statesman.

What we saw in Kenya was an element of gaps and unprofessional security management, coupled with security colluding with the protesters and other invisible actors to let down the government arrangements of Dr. Ruto. Meaning Kenyan security might have been infiltrated with wrong elements to allow and give room to acts of banditry Or the security infrastructure to avert such violent, mass demonstrations is still ineffective hence, breaching security protocols to reach an extent of breaking the parliament barricades, this dilemma should generate debate so as to manage well such future unethical vice of destruction, looting, hooliganism and loss of lives.

Therefore, such mass movement can’t be managed with live bullets or even tear gas only, but use of robust spraying with pink or red solution water that would confuse, redirect , divert the protesters to run in disarray under than recollecting themselves in a joint point of concentration each time they gather to pave way for more deployment and taking strategic positions to curtail overzealous penetration. This would give rise to leaders to timely consult on way forward to deal with procrastination.

However, the dilema Dr. Ruto and his successors should bear in mind is, shall it be a norm that each time there is change in government policy, should their first be bloodshed, protest, demonstration, destruction or dialogue to take precedence!

Nevertheless, shall the same Kenyan wanainch who want to bring down the legitimate government still crave and demand for better service delivery without paying taxes? Or they shall demand for better reforms as an alternative instrument of meeting the National mandatory obligations of providing service delivery and paying upfront Kenyan debts that the Nation has gotten itself into! “The dilemma is No taxes No services” therefore, more need for conversations!

Last but not least, I want to apologize to Kenyans for this long piece of opinion I have annotated herein as a Ugandan friend and comrade.

This dilemma annotated here gives us insights on our actions at the most desperate times and the dilemma we always find ourselves in as we handle challenges and bottlenecks that come our way as we discharge our duties in more professional manner.

But I also write this with a heavy heart that,  Kenya as a country has obligation  to design it’s future and frame where it would wish to be. It was very disturbing to watch clips of videos of youths and adult protesters insinuating insults and abusing our father of the Nation none other than H.E the president of Uganda.  We Ugandan cadres got so disturbed, disappointed and disgraceful with those insults, it was indeed very unfortunate to  degenerate up to that extent of becoming an ice on the face of a planet ! we are aware about the close and cordial friendship our president has with Kenyans specifically with President Ruto, and other leaders of EAC both current and former, including other global leaders.

This friendship with Dr. Ruto signifies a measured cooperation in terms of social, economic and political arrangements that the two countries enjoy as East African Community, no one seem to dissolve it.

Therefore, we Ugandans respect our president for who he is and how he has brought peace to Ugandans among many other National programs that for purposes of this dossier I may not allude here.

We Ugandans are not promoters of violence likewise our president.

Our president deserves all the respect we Ugandan daughters and sons give to other global leaders. It’s not by accident that Uganda is a leading country in Africa and third in the world in hosting refugees. The reasons are very clear and it’s about peace that the country is endowed with as pearl of Africa!

Kindly, leave our president out of your yoga of violence.

I thank you.

The author is Richard Andama, a Ugandan Citizen and former District representative to H.E the president of the Republic of Uganda Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. 

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