If Gen-Z’s had their way, President Ruto would be out of office tomorrow. A few weeks ago, Kenyan youth took to the streets to demand the rejection of the finance bill. The Kenyan government, led by President William Ruto initially ignored the protests and proceeded with the process of tabling the bill in parliament and eventually passed it.
The protests eventually got so big that William Ruto had to announce that the bill would be recalled. Even when the president announced the decision to recall the bill, Kenyans still doubted him. Simply put, Kenyans don’t trust the government. Kenyans don’t trust their president but can you even blame them? After all, President William Ruto has often said one thing and gone ahead to do another.
Back to the protests, eventually, the goal of the protests changed. Gen-z’s started demanding things other than just the rejection of the finance bill. Some of their other demands were more firing of incompetent government officials, an end to corruption, and the resignation of President William Ruto. The Kenyan youth are still waiting to see if all their demands will be met.
Today we pose a question. Can the President's seemingly broken relationship with Kenyan citizens be repaired? At the moment, that seems impossible but life has taught me that nothing is impossible. Here are some of the ways that I think President William Ruto can attempt to repair his relationship with Kenyan citizens and most particularly the Kenyan youth.
The first thing the president must understand is that Kenyans demand accountability. My suggestion, and I don’t know how feasible this is, is that the Kenyan government should create a website. That way, Kenyans can see how the budget is being utilized. For example, MPs will give a detailed account of how CDF funds have been spent. If, for example, I come across a CDF project in my constituency, I can easily log in to the website and see how much was spent on the project, if by any chance I see a 5 million project written down as a 15 million project, I can easily report the issue to whatever government agency is tasked with dealing with corruption. Another example of how this website will help is that if bursaries are issued in a constituency, the MPs will be required to publish the names of those who received them and how much each of them received so that members can from time to time authenticate to see if those given the bursaries were deserving.
Another thing that President William Ruto must do is prosecute corrupt government officials. I dream of a scenario where any senior government official accused of corruption will be asked to step down temporarily until proven innocent. So far, that has not been the case.
Lastly, President William Ruto must start saying what he says. I can name just a few instances where he lied to the people of Kenya. He promised that the 6 kg gas cylinder whose initial price was around Ksh 2800 would soon retail at around Ksh 300-500. Now we know that was a lie! During the Jamhuri celebrations in December 2022, he promised that whoever attended the celebration would get a free scholarship from the University of Arizona. Now we know that was a lie! Mr President, if you ever read this, I hope that a day comes when word means something.