President Ruto faces enduring national challenges
Deputy President William Samoei Ruto, to sworn in today as the 5th President of the Republic of Kenya, was not yet born when Jomo Kenyatta, the father of the man he is succeeding, Uhuru Kenyatta, ascended to office.
However, the challenges Jomo faced in 1963 are somewhat akin to those that confronted his son and Ruto today, 60 years later.
After Kenyatta took over from the British colonialists (may Queen Elizabeth II’s soul rest in peace), he faced the task of building a united nation of 42 diverse ethnic communities on a pathway of political, social and economic progress.
Jomo’s team prioritised the eradication of poverty, ignorance and disease. Ex-presidents Daniel Moi, Mwai Kibaki, Uhuru and now Ruto, 55, have all been entangled in the quagmire of these challenges and failure to consolidate national cohesion.
Kenya remains deeply politically divided along ethnic lines. Millions live in extreme poverty, the economy battered, hampering the provision of social and economic services. Cost-of-living is sky high, the population ballooning amid massive youth unemployment.
Growing inequality and new shocks including Covid-19, climate change, devastating drought, the emergent food crisis and jittery investors compound the challenges facing Ruto. All successive presidencies have failed to deal with the endemic cancer of corruption debilitating citizens.
Prosecutorial and anti-corruption institutions cannot convict the “big fish”. The Judiciary has not wielded the sword of justice in slaying the dragon of corruption. National unity is elusive as political forces compete for power and resources. Negative ethnicity saw Ruto and Uhuru’s bitter estrangement amid accusations of “state capture”. Ruto’s narrow election win that shocked erstwhile rival Raila Odinga backed by Uhuru and allied countrywide supporters who secured half the national vote, magnifies ethnic prejudices permeating the contentious electoral process.
Analysts have critiqued the voting “holy alliance” of two communities’ political elite, once bitter foes in protracted election battles that led to violence, deaths and evictions only resolved by mediation and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Yet some historians cite “repayment of political debt” Uhuru and his community owed Raila and his father Oginga Odinga for their past political sacrifices for democracy. Instead, Uhuru’s community defied his nationalistic overtures and wrote off this debt to repay that owed Ruto for ditching Raila to support Uhuru in 2013 and 2017, and secure Rift Valley diaspora abodes.
Lingering questions on the independence and integrity of the electoral process – procurement, the integrity of technology for voting and transmission of results and alleged “capture of the electoral system” featured prominently in a petition the Supreme Court dismissed for lack of evidence.
Now Ruto seems to be adopting the past four presidents’ undemocratic style of defections largely bereft of ideology and principles, ensuring the “capture” of the Legislature (both the National Assembly and the Senate) to consolidate power.
Observers fear a return of a vengeful winner-takes-it-all, one-party ruling mentality of impunity averse to inquisitions on probity to commitment to democracy, transparency and accountability. The framers of the Constitution, 2010, envisaging a departure from the imperial presidency of the Jomo and Moi eras, trimmed the Executive’s powers for devolved governance anchored in the doctrine of separation of powers.
Alas, legislators have whittled down clauses entrenching the checks and balances between the different arms of government, and those on leadership and integrity.
The result is a mongrel legislative structure containing individuals on corruption, fraud and murder charges. Will courts invoke divine intervention and judge judiciously on these cases? Time will tell.
