Is Ruto still the hustler?, By Toyin Falola

It is more disheartening that the treatment of the people in their biggest moment of vulnerability has come from a man who has claimed to have once been like them. A man who had promised to make their lives comfortable and one who promised to bring sanity to their welfare care. It is important that if there will be anything to savage at all, it is pertinent that Ruto and its government drop the arrogance and show more intentionality about promoting peace without violence. I am beginning to believe the common saying that “power corrupts” quite beyond its original context, either because of the exceeding and degenerative trends of African leaders, who continuously forget the promises they had campaigned on and the backgrounds they had come from, by ruling with fierce hands and inconsiderate motivations. Sometimes, the belief has been that the right leader for the suffering citizenry should come from the group of those who have faced similar trauma. Well, the recent trend of African leadership has rendered such belief a mere lofty assumption. President Ruto had climbed his way to the top through the impossibilities of the African political classes and bought the hearts of the people with the various problems he faced on his way up. He was voted with the people’s conviction that they had elected a “Hustler-in-Chief” into office. I mean, he once had to hustle the sales of chicken on the roads. People should have seen that he was far from being a hustler, as he claimed, after his political assignments in the country and the corruption allegations against him. But Kenyans were, however, further persuaded by his determination and relatability; he had said, “We want everyone to feel the wealth of this country. Not just a few at the top.” The campaign’s points against his opponent, Raila Odinga, at the last election, was that he represented the image of the Kenyan hustlers against the Odinga dynasty and was only driven by the need to “put food on the table” of Kenyans. I am not sure many remember that he started his political career under President Arap Moi, receiving money to purchase votes and launder images. Like many of the average politicians in Africa, Ruto quickly lost sight of the plight of the people and stiffened the air that the poor breathed. Having this background imprinted on the minds of the people, their expectation of what Ruto would use his good office to do was either to make the situation better or to ensure it did not get worse than it was. One cannot blame the citizens. Perhaps the people failed to notice that his game was to serve the interests of Washington DC, to the extent that he damaged the name of his country in support of genocide, incurring curses from those who lost their lives in the Mau Mau struggles. In enjoying the red carpet treatment offered to him by the US, travelling there in a chartered plane paid for by nameless friends, Ruto is too naïve to remember the policy statements as enunciated by Henry A. Kissinger: To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal. America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests. We should ask Ruto: is it true that there were American observers in the Parliament on the day they voted for the Financial Bill 2024? Maybe your political enemies made up the story. Could it also be true that parliamentarians received bribes before they voted for the bill? Another rumour? There are other rumours, but who is driving the obsession to pass the bill into law? If the country needs to pay its debt, why not take on the burden, along with your friends who are already enjoying so much? The task of a government is between the need to satisfy state realities and the welfare of the people it governs. Often, many African governments have tilted towards different economic steps without considering the welfare of their people. They unknowingly separate the people’s wishes, experiences, and priorities from the grand economic plans and realities they claim to address. Well, leaving out the different shenanigans of the politicians in Africa and those in Kenya, policies are created without reading the room. Ruto and his cohorts have been creating policies upon policies with the claim of stabilising the economy and other supposed grand schemes for the nation. The government’s Finance Bill was supposed to cover the next financial year from July to June, giving the skeletal financial framework of the country. The Bill intended to solve the country’s many economic and financial crises by placing heavy loads on the people without thinking outside the box. Every act and policy of any country must gain validity from the will and welfare of the people. With the long history of suffering of Kenyans, which Ruto claimed to have hustled through, and the contemporary complications on the survival possibilities of the people, the primary objective of any reasonable government should be to make the people as comfortable as they can get. The bill sought to increase the taxes on commodities, such as bread, and annual returns on vehicles. The bill put