President William Ruto has in recent months reversed, softened or revised a series of government decisions, in a pattern that has brought renewed scrutiny to how his administration responds to public pressure.
From the crackdown on foreign small-scale traders to fuel prices, university funding and tax measures, a string of reversals and softened directives is raising questions about whether the President’s policy agenda is being reshaped by public anger and the growing political stakes of the 2027 General Elections.
The latest example is the hasty reversal of a Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) decision to raise the minimum customs benchmark for consolidated cargo, adding to a growing list of about-turns by the administration since the deadly Gen Z protests.
The authority had increased the customs benchmark from Sh2.5 million to Sh3.2 million effective August 20, 2026, as part of efforts to improve domestic revenue collection.
But protests by small-scale traders who argued that the higher threshold would increase their tax burden forced the President to intervene, sacrificing a revenue-raising measure at the altar of political expediency.
During a meeting with the President at State House on September 2, 2026, traders secured a reversal, with Dr Ruto directing KRA to reduce the benchmark to Sh2 million, a level last applied six years ago.
“Accordingly, KRA will reduce the applicable benchmark for general consolidated cargo from Sh2.5 million to Sh2 million…,” read a communique from the Ministry of Trade.
Small-scale traders form a critical and politically consequential voting bloc and with his re-election far from assured, the President appears unwilling to take chances with a constituency that was central to his 2022 victory.
The KRA decision had been guided by the Fourth Schedule of the East African Community Customs Management Act, which sets out methods for cargo valuation. The taxman said the Sh3.2 million benchmark was arrived at in accordance with the law and after consultations with industry stakeholders.
After the announcement, the KRA Customs team were locked in meetings to review the impact of the Presidential directive amid pressure by traders to implement the lower Sh2million benchmark. KRA had defended the Sh3.2 million customs benchmark valuation, saying it factored in emerging issues in the cost of freight, foreign exchange, insurance and the regional taxation landscape.
The customs about-turn was followed almost immediately by another politically sensitive reversal, the crackdown on foreigners operating small-scale businesses.
On September 2, Dr Ruto ordered foreign traders operating small businesses to shut down, giving them until September 7 to leave the sector.
Following sustained pressure from civil society and the international community, the government later changed course, giving foreign nationals a 90-day window to regularise their immigration and licensing status.
“From next week, all (foreign) traders doing those small businesses should close them,” President Ruto declared after meeting Kenyan traders, arguing that some small-scale trading opportunities should be reserved for citizens.
The episode reinforced the impression of a President increasingly attuned to the political consequences of his pronouncements, particularly among the voters who propelled him to State House in 2022.
As leader of the United Democratic Alliance, Dr Ruto built his presidential campaign around class-based, bottom-up economic messaging, using the “hustler” narrative to appeal to Kenyans at the lower end of the economic pyramid.
Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui sought to clarify that the crackdown was a government policy, arguing that Kenya’s visa-free entry and electronic travel authorisation framework does not give foreign nationals an automatic right to engage in local trade, retail or informal hawking in direct competition with Kenyan traders.
Yesterday, lobby groups condemned the President’s orders targeting foreigners, accusing him of making roadside declarations designed to win political support ahead of the 2027 election and demanding an apology and reparations for those affected.
But the two pronouncements are not isolated incidents but part of a wider political script that the President has increasingly embraced since his support base began to show signs of political turbulence amid a rising cost of living, poor governance ratings, high taxes and his bitter fallout with his former deputy, Rigathi Gachagua.
Analysts argue the President appears to be recalibrating his political strategy around the economy, using highly visible interventions to respond to public anger and shore up support ahead of the next election.
Ruto: I told Tata Chemicals to go, all their money was going to India
On Tuesday, Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho announced that the government had softened its stance towards the giant soda ash producer after a month-long standoff, paving the way for talks with the company.
The climb-down came amid uproar over an earlier order by the President during his political tour of Kajiado County, where the firm is based, on September 3, 2026.
Dr Ruto had accused the Indian multinational of exploiting Kenya through extraction contracts and failing to add value locally, warning that he would not accept blackmail.
“We have taken the policy decision that we will no longer export raw materials. We are going to process all minerals available in the Republic of Kenya in Kenya… it is imprudent for any government to export raw materials, create jobs and values in other countries when we have a big population of young people who need jobs,” said the President in Kajiado last week.
The government initially said a new company had already been identified to take over from Tata Chemicals, before changing its position and opening the process to competitive bidding.
On September 8, however, the government changed course again, saying it was committed to positively engaging investors within the confines of the law and regulations, paving the way for talks with Tata Chemicals.
Tata Chemicals Magadi, formerly Magadi Soda, is among Kenya’s largest mining employers and the biggest producer of soda ash in Africa. It is also one of the country’s largest single exporters.
Political and governance expert Javas Bigambo attributes some of the confusion to a lack of comprehensive communication by the government before major policy changes and directives are announced.
He argues that once the government provides deeper explanations, some of the issues that trigger public outrage become clearer, potentially absolving the administration of blame.
President William Ruto addresses wananchi in Othaya town on the final day of his tour of Mt Kenya region on April 5, 2025.
Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi | Nation Media Group
“The issue of Tata Chemicals is non-compliance with the Mining Act 2016, which the company has not been implementing. So the question should be how many mining companies are compliant with the law. The pronouncement by the President therefore is not populist but emphatic on operationalisation of the mining law,” Mr Bigambo said.
“On the issue of foreign traders regularising their immigration and licensing status, it is all about operationalisation of the East African Community protocols and nothing else.”
The President has also been forced into several other policy reversals following intense public backlash.
On education, higher education funding has emerged as another political headache for the administration, with the current funding model locking out some students even as university enrolment is projected to reach 1.2 million in the 2026/27 academic year.
With hundreds of thousands of students and their families facing uncertainty and representing a sizeable voting constituency, Dr Ruto made another U-turn in July, announcing that all students who qualify for university education would receive full government funding under a new proposal contained in the Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, 2026, currently before Parliament.
“Now we have in Parliament the final version of how we are going to make higher education universal. It will not matter the background of any child in Kenya, it will matter how good they are…,” Dr Ruto said during a July 21, 2026 meeting with education stakeholders at State House.
“We tried the Differentiated Unit Cost model, it did not work and it made most of our universities almost close down, because while we promised 80 per cent funding, we went down to 40 per cent and most universities suffered,” he added.
President Ruto’s Economic Adviser David Ndii has since admitted that the previous funding model had become financially unsustainable as student enrolment continued to rise, necessitating the proposed changes.
The pattern of retreat in the face of public pressure can be traced back to the early days of the administration.
Fresh from assuming power in September 2022, Dr Ruto made sweeping changes to policies inherited from his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta, including scrapping consumption subsidies on maize flour and fuel, which he described as unsustainable fiscal burdens.
While defending the decision, Dr Ruto said the subsidies could cost up to Sh3 billion a month and were not a sustainable solution to the high cost of living. He said his government preferred subsidising production rather than consumption.
But as Kenyans continued to struggle with rising living costs, the government was forced to temporarily reinstate a fuel subsidy through a stabilisation fund when pump prices rose to Sh194 in August 2023.
The issue has now come full circle. Last month, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi said the government was seeking funds to subsidise retail fuel prices as it sought to shield consumers from soaring pump prices amid tensions in the Middle East and the approach of the 2027 General Election.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi speaks at Ndiru Primary School in Homa Bay Town constituency on June 26, 2026.
Photo credit: George Odiwour | Nation Media Group
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority had been relying on the petroleum development levy, which is now depleted, to stabilise prices following the Iran-Israel war that began in February. Fuel prices subsequently hit a record Sh242.92 per litre in June, triggering public anger against an administration already struggling to demonstrate economic gains.
“We are looking for sources of funding to subsidise fuel or petroleum products even going forward,” Mr Mbadi said.
On September 5, 2022, Dr Ruto vowed that Kenya would never return to a “handshake conundrum”, dismissing the arrangement between his predecessor and the opposition leader Raila Odinga as a mongrel government that blurred the lines between the opposition and the ruling party.
“We will have an opposition in Kenya. We will not have a handshake that creates a mongrel of a government where no one knows where the line is… I do not believe in handshake stories. I believe in an accountable government held to account by a responsible opposition. That is how Kenya is going to move forward,” said Dr Ruto at his Karen residence hours after the Supreme Court upheld his election win.
But by mid-2024, faced with intense protests and dwindling public confidence, the President softened his position and reached out to his former political nemesis, the late ODM leader Raila Odinga, leading to the establishment of the broad-based government.
The political marriage followed the withdrawal of several tax proposals contained in the Finance Bill 2024, including measures to tax previously exempt items and broaden the tax base.
The proposals triggered widespread and deadly public protests, forcing Dr Ruto to dissolve his Cabinet and announce a raft of measures aimed at appeasing the predominantly young demonstrators.
To shore up his political support, UDA subsequently struck a deal with ODM that allowed several opposition politicians to join the broad-based government, a move that went against the President’s earlier political posture when he assumed power.
Dr Ruto has since repeatedly defended the arrangement, insisting that it was a deliberate strategy to foster national unity and inclusivity.
“Broad-based government was not a mistake; it was deliberate. It was intentional,” Dr Ruto said at a rally in Kisii in April this year, dismissing criticism of the arrangement.
