President William Ruto addresses wananchi during the 60th Madaraka Day national celebrations at Moi stadium in Embu on June 1, 2023. He has restricted trips abroad by the Executive to 45 days per year.
| File | Nation Media GroupPolitics
Premium
President William Ruto masters oratory to hit opponents
President William Ruto is a creature of habit. Known for the exceptional oratory skills that he has mastered throughout his career and perfected during the 2022 election campaigns, he uses one key tool that seems to work for him: Delivering his messages in the same way, with the same words, and often in the same tone and order, repeated countless times.
So precise has he become it seems, that it is often possible to know, once he picks a particular topic, what he would say, how he would say it, and for how long.
Dr Ruto is deliberate with his choice of words and speaks often with his right palm folded into a fist. He punctuates every statement with gesticulations to dive the point home.
The Sunday Nation took a deep dive into President Ruto’s messaging and breaks down issues he says he cares about and repeats in virtually every function, rally or church service since getting into office.
It appears the strategy is simple: Talk about something often, and with enough optimism and self-assurance, that Kenyans start having the message as part of their worldview.
Top among the matters President Ruto addresses in his speeches is the cost of living and the country’s economy.
He sees the opposition protests against the skyrocketing cost of basic commodities as a waste of time that will, on its own, never result in the fall of prices.
“It is true that many Kenyans are suffering due to the harsh economic times but we will not solve the situation by wearing sufurias (cooking pots) on our heads. We should invest in our farmers to enhance food production,” says Dr Ruto, comments he has repeated in every public event since the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition called anti-government protests in March.
He has instead asked the opposition to let Kenyans work in order to generate income for themselves.
“Even if you put sufurias on your head for days, unga prices will not go down. You must go to the farm for the prices to go down,” he said in Machakos in April.
A study by Infotrak released last week showed that seven out of 10 Kenyans blame President Ruto for the country’s woes, the cost of living, and what they say is a wrong direction the country is taking.
Even the President acknowledges that the cost of living is high.
When Dr Ruto visited Nyandarua County May 13, he appealed to Kenyans to give him time to lower the cost of basic commodities.
“I also know that the cost of living is high but I found it high and I have been trying to bring it down. Please allow me to correct the situation,” he said.
“We will not get out of this situation by magic. We will get out of it with clear plans and interventions. I ask you to be understanding and to work with what is possible.”
The Kenya Kwanza administration has on several occasions said it “will not subsidise consumption (food prices)” as that burdens the country in the long term. President Ruto has pushed his messaging towards “subsidising production” with measures like reducing the cost of fertiliser.
“I want to tell my friends (in the opposition) that we know how to plan things and we are not like you who spent Sh8 billion in a month to subsidise maize flour yet that product did not get to Kenyans at a price of Sh100 per 2kg. We will spend Sh8 billion to subsidise six million bags of fertiliser to help our farmers produce more food and lower the high cost of food. Our competitors must know that we have a different approach. They were subsidising production but we are going to invest in production. We are going to teach agricultural economics and they will understand,” he said in Kirinyaga County a month after being was sworn into office.
The President, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and the Kenya Kwanza leadership have exploited every opportunity to drive home this statement.
He has criticised the previous administration – which he was part of – for heavy borrowing, adding that his government would not engage in taking more loans as the country is already in a deep hole.
In this messaging, Dr Ruto conveniently leaves out the part that he was deputy president from 2013, instead focusing on the “handshake years” from March 2018 to August 2022 when President Uhuru Kenyatta entered into a political truce with opposition chief Raila Odinga.
He also does not mention the loans taken by his administration.
While in Kakamega on June 18, the President said: “We have a debt of about Sh9 trillion and Kenya is in danger of being auctioned. I will not continue with the culture of borrowing.”
President Ruto has made job-creation a top priority for his administration, with the affordable housing plan being touted as one of his main avenues for the many unemployed young people to finally land jobs.
He has relentlessly defended the introduction of the housing levy, arguing that its real purpose is to create jobs.
“The housing levy is here to help low-income earners afford decent houses. But the real motivation behind the housing plan is the jobs we are going to create. Every house will require five people to build, and therefore many youths will get jobs and an income for themselves,” he said during the launch of a housing programme in Embu County two months ago.
To show how important job creation is for his administration, the President while in Homa Bay on July 14 said all his efforts are deliberate and well planned.
“In this budget, we are deliberate about creating jobs. It has never happened in Kenya and that is why many people are confused. People are used to the usual where we just make a budget and move on,” he said.
“We have to change and that change will not be easy. We have more than five million unemployed youth and therefore must be deliberate and create concrete plans about creating jobs.”
Despite all his efforts to show that the Kenya Kwanza administration has been working to address problems facing Kenyans, the President has not escaped sharp criticism from the opposition and other quarters.
Almost a year on, that criticism has grown to the violent protests witnessed in several parts of the country.
But for the President and his allies, the message has been that the opposition is not honest with Kenyans and that all Azimio la Umoja One Kenya alliance wants is power-sharing, which Dr Ruto and his brigade vow will never happen.
“As President, I owe it to the people of Kenya to provide leadership,” he said in Kigali, Rwanda, on April 4, while responding to a journalist’s question on whether he would have a handshake with Mr Odinga.
“I want to tell you, there will be no handshake. But there will be an engagement in Parliament on the issues that have been raised by the opposition,” he said.
“The history we have of handshake is where there was a fusion of government and the opposition. The results were disastrous for Kenya. There wasn’t any accountability and the whole system went rogue.”
He added that a handshake brings the opposition and government into some conundrum, a mongrel and an outfit that is undemocratic, unconstitutional and illegal.
The talks in Parliament have since collapsed and the protesters are back on the streets. The opposition claims it is still about the cost of living but the government sees it as a way for Azimio leaders to get into power.
Said Dr Ruto in Nakuru County on July 14: “They want us to repeat the handshake. The handshake in 2018 fuelled theft of public resources.”
Dr Ruto has told the opposition to stop the demonstrations and allow him to serve the people.
“The election is over. If you (the opposition) has any issues, wait for 2027 and we shall meet at the ballot. Let us first work for the people who elected us,” he said in March.
He echoed the sentiments the following month, telling the opposition to move on.
“Enough is enough with the destruction by leaders with selfish interests and who do not mean good for the country. I will not allow any more destruction of property in the name of protest and push for the opening of IEBC servers. We shall not be blackmailed. We shall not be cowed.”
But the country this month witnessed very violent protests, prompting the President to take an even harder stance on the opposition.
He has vowed to deal “firmly” with protesters. Several opposition leaders were arrested.
“After every election, those who lose cause chaos with intent to get a share of the government but I will not allow that to happen,” he said.
“I commend police and other agencies for ensuring that Kenyans’ security was guaranteed during the two days. We will make sure nobody interferes with the security of Kenyans. We will not allow them to destroy this country. We will deal with them.”
