The recent spat between President William Ruto and Trans Nzoia governor George Natembeya brought to full public glare the petulant mien of our so-called leaders.
Children will fight over toys, but when full-grown adults do the same, it can very easily escalate into full-blown warfare. Our sorry history of electoral violence may be grounded in competition for political power, but it has its genesis in leaders who never grew up.
On the surface, the president and the governor were fighting over nothing, merely over who has the right to place a plaque bearing his name on some village market.
Governor Natembeya protested vociferously when President Ruto made the official opening of a market complex in Kitale Town one of his key stops on a campaign tour of the county. The governor insisted that the market was a county government project, and as such the president had no right to steal credit for its construction, vowing to tear down Ruto's plaque and install his own.
Things like markets do indeed fall under devolved government functions, but little objections have been raised elsewhere as the president has been traversing the country on campaign tours commissioning, launching and opening all kinds of projects which have nothing to do with national government; and others that were completed and opened a long time ago but needed a new ceremony for the political optics.
Like his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta in the run-up to the 2017 elections, President Ruto is running a re-election campaign desperate to show-off tangible development from a first term in office. One recalls President Kenyatta during a campaign stop in Mombasa so desperate for a photo-op launching something, that he cut the ribbon on a well-worn footbridge, that was grandly re-christened a 'non-motorised transport infrastructure facility'.
Under the current regime, we have gone beyond footpaths, but President Ruto will not pass up any opportunity to pose before projects of any nature, even if they have been in use for the past five years. A shiny new coat of paint will suffice for a fresh ceremony.
Trans-Nzoia Governor George Natembeya.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Until Mr Natembeya threw his unseemly tantrums, no one had previously objected to Dr Ruto's rush to open and claim credit for projects, but the ensuing exchanges also exposed a prickly president who has no qualms about wrestling in the mud with local politicians in a manner that diminishes the stature of high office.
The Trans Nzoia governor is not in the race for State House, which might call into question President Ruto's equally petty response. Perhaps what provoked was not so much Mr Natembeya's remarks, but the wider picture of a populous western Kenya electoral block he assumed was in the bag seemingly slipping away. Since the sudden emergence of Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna as a potent new political force on the national arena, all the political calculations that presumed Western Kenya was firmly in the Ruto re-election bid have to be torn up. It seemed a done deal when crafting of the broad-based government arrangement with the late opposition kingpin Raila Odinga added to western Kenya numbers previously brought in by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula .
Mr Sifuna upset the regional mathematics, sending plenty of panic in President Ruto's camp when it became apparent that the campaigns key pointmen in the populous voting bloc were on verge of being reduced to irrelevance.
Nairobi Senator and The Equitable Party (TEP) leader Edwin Sifuna gestures during a joint media engagement at Four Points By Sheraton Nairobi Hurlingham on October 9, 2026.
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group
The aggressive Natembeya is not only one of Mr Sifuna's key assets in the region, but one who had made his mark leading a virtual insurrection against the Mudavadi-Wetangula axis way before the Nairobi Senator emerged as a fresh political phenomena on the list of presidential hopefuls. While publicly dismissing Mr Sifuna as a no-hopper, it is telling that the President Ruto's campaign machinery is investing everything it has in the effort to stem his growing influence.
All pro-government politicians from western Kenya have seemingly been put on notice that they must fight Mr Sifuna on every available forum. The paid social media hordes have similarly been instructed to go on the offensive. Even President Ruto himself has added Mr Sifuna to his list of verbal targets.
But beyond platform theatrics, some serious matters emerged. One is for how long serious issues of policy, platform and ideology must play second fiddle to juvenile posturing as 2027 presidential campaigns heat up. Another is the extent to which 'development' must forever be hostage to the crass games of political rewards and blackmail.
All over the country, politicians have been deployed to send out the message that citizens must support President Ruto's re-election if they want to benefit from critical infrastructure or social and economic support. We hardly ever call out the lie to such campaigns. Development does not rise from roadside political rhetoric. It is part of well-crafted State economic planning.
Mr Gaitho, an independent journalist, is former NMG Managing Editor for Special Projects. [email protected]
