President William Ruto receives an autographed football jersey from Harambee Stars Captain Abud Omar and coach Benni McCarthy yesterday at State House, Nairobi.
The moment arrived and President William Ruto did not hesitate to form a new political party. He did not struggle to give it a name because it already had one – Harambee Stars. Its slogan did not have to be catchy because its mission is an obvious industry requirement – Stars must win.
Harambee Stars is the nickname of Kenya’s national football team and in them Ruto saw a passion point that intersected sports and politics.
“From August 3 until the Chan 2024 final on August 30, our party is Harambee Stars. We will put our other parties aside and support Harambee Stars. Our slogan is ‘Stars must win’,” Ruto declared on August 2, 2025, during a breakfast meeting with members of Harambee Stars’ Chan 2024 squad at the Pullman Hotel in Nairobi’s Upper Hill area.
President William Ruto poses for a group photos with Harambee Stars team when he hosted them and other athletes for a celebratory lunch at State House, Nairobi.
The meeting took place a day before Harambee Stars defeated DR Congo 1-0 in their first match of Chan 2024, the tournament Kenya has been co-hosting with Tanzania and Uganda.
African hotels, as British author Michela Wrong describes them in In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, “are microcosms of their countries’ tumultuous histories” and “where peace deal are signed”.
That breakfast meeting with Ruto at that cozy enclave in upmarket Nairobi somehow upheld Wrong’s observation. The meeting entangled Harambee Stars and football with Kenya’s recent political history. By labeling Harambee Stars a political party that deserves nationwide support, Ruto aimed to pacify the opposition against his rule.
“World over, politicians always ride on sports to gain political mileage and boost their approval ratings. Sports has a way of instilling a great sense of patriotism and national pride among citizens,” Dr. Nicodemus Minde, a Peace and International Relations scholar, explains.
President William Ruto receives a signed Team Jersey from Captain Abud Omar (centre) and coach Benni McCarthy when he hosted Harambee Stars team for a luncheon on August 28, 2025, at State House, Nairobi.
However, out of that encounter with Ruto at Pullman Hotel came a deal that made the hitherto struggling Harambee Stars a winning machine that is on the verge of making African football history on debut appearance at Chan.
Terming Kenya’s hosting of 2024 African Nations Championship (Chan) as historic, Ruto charged Harambee Stars to go all the way and make history yet again by winning the competition on their debut appearance.
“I want us to make double history. We are hosting this competition for the first time and we must all go on to win it,” the President told the Harambee Stars squad.
To motivate them, Ruto made a deal with the squad, promising them Sh1 million for every match they win and Sh500 000 for every draw they register. He sweetened the deal with more incentives that saw Harambee Stars standing to make Sh600 million in win and performance bonuses if they went all the way to win Chan 2024. Recently, following a request by Harambee Stars, Ruto also promised the squads houses under the Affordable Housing Program is they reach at least the semifinals of Chan 2024.
President William Ruto hands over the Kenyan flag to Harambee Starlets Under-17 team captain Elizabeth Ochaka at State House, Nairobi on September 18, 2024. Looking on are Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa, Sports CS Kipchumba Murkomen and PS Peter Tum.
Ruto is not the only President to incentivise his country's national team to win matches at Chan 2024. His East African counterparts, Tanzania's President Mama Samia Suluhu and Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni have also done the same.
Suluhu promised Taifa Stars Tsh1 million (Sh53 000) for every goal they score and recently donated Tsh200 million (Sh10.5 million) to the squad to motivate them ahead of playing two-time Chan champions Morocco in their quartefinal match on Friday in Dar es Salaam.
Museveni, on his part, promised the Uganda Cranes squad Ush1 billion (Sh43 million) for every match they win.
President William Ruto joins thousands of Kenyans at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi on August 17, 2025 in cheering Harambee Stars during their Group 'A' match against Zambia in the 2024 African Nations Championship.
While several Kenyans have welcomed Ruto's promises of hefty bonuses to Harambee Stars, there is a section that faults the lack of efforts in addressing other economic concerns.
"The President should also look at allocating funds to improving other ailing sectors of the economy. Rewarding Harambee Stars is good but other Kenyans should not be left behind," Abel Mayienga, a bodaboda operator, says.
As East Africa's three presidents read from the same page in rewarding performances by their respective national teams, Minde reckons that their authoritarian rule have led to hostilities between Kenyans, Ugandans, and Tanzanians at Chan 2024.
"Chan 2024 is showing that the authoritarianism by the three East African presidents has excerbated relationships between Kenyans, Ugandans, and Tanzanians. East Africans are wishing each other defeat in a manner that goes beyond sports banter. The governments of the three countries showed no official form of support in condemning human rights violations against Ugandan opposition Kiiza Besigye by Kenya and the torture and detention of Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan activist Agathe Atuhaire by Tanzanian authorities. That has led to East Africans holding grudges against each other and not wishing each other success at Chan," Minde says.
President William Ruto (left) and Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya (right) interact with Harambee Stars players at the team's training camp at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi July 16, 2025.
Still, within each country's borders, hosting Chan 2024, has led to a reduction in politicial hostilities, particularly in Kenya.
Tanzania, who go to the polls in October 2025, and Uganda, who vote in January 2026, have had their campaigns overshadowed by Chan 2024, where the three countries made the last eight. Kenya do not vote until August 2027.
"Sports has a way of bringing calm in the midst of crisis and political unrest," Minde says.
Wesley Bii, a bodaboda operator stated that President Ruto must be relieved with the relief Chan 2024 has brought to the country. "Ruto must be wishing that Kenya hosts a big sports event every month until 2027," Bii says.
Chris Rupia, a hygiene services provider, predicts the calm to last for as long as Harambee Stars performs at Chan. "If Kenya suffers elimination, people will resort to politics to vent out their frustrations."
