Is Ruto still the hustler?, By Toyin Falola

William Ruto. Picture credit: Bas Czerwinski/AP

It is more disheartening that the treatment of the people in their biggest moment of vulnerability has come from a man who has claimed to have once been like them. A man who had promised to make their lives comfortable and one who promised to bring sanity to their welfare care. It is important that if there will be anything to savage at all, it is pertinent that Ruto and its government drop the arrogance and show more intentionality about promoting peace without violence.

I am beginning to believe the common saying that “power corrupts” quite beyond its original context, either because of the exceeding and degenerative trends of African leaders, who continuously forget the promises they had campaigned on and the backgrounds they had come from, by ruling with fierce hands and inconsiderate motivations. Sometimes, the belief has been that the right leader for the suffering citizenry should come from the group of those who have faced similar trauma. Well, the recent trend of African leadership has rendered such belief a mere lofty assumption.

President Ruto had climbed his way to the top through the impossibilities of the African political classes and bought the hearts of the people with the various problems he faced on his way up. He was voted with the people’s conviction that they had elected a “Hustler-in-Chief” into office. I mean, he once had to hustle the sales of chicken on the roads. People should have seen that he was far from being a hustler, as he claimed, after his political assignments in the country and the corruption allegations against him. But Kenyans were, however, further persuaded by his determination and relatability; he had said, “We want everyone to feel the wealth of this country. Not just a few at the top.” The campaign’s points against his opponent, Raila Odinga, at the last election, was that he represented the image of the Kenyan hustlers against the Odinga dynasty and was only driven by the need to “put food on the table” of Kenyans. I am not sure many remember that he started his political career under President Arap Moi, receiving money to purchase votes and launder images.

Like many of the average politicians in Africa, Ruto quickly lost sight of the plight of the people and stiffened the air that the poor breathed. Having this background imprinted on the minds of the people, their expectation of what Ruto would use his good office to do was either to make the situation better or to ensure it did not get worse than it was. One cannot blame the citizens. Perhaps the people failed to notice that his game was to serve the interests of Washington DC, to the extent that he damaged the name of his country in support of genocide, incurring curses from those who lost their lives in the Mau Mau struggles. In enjoying the red carpet treatment offered to him by the US, travelling there in a chartered plane paid for by nameless friends, Ruto is too naïve to remember the policy statements as enunciated by Henry A. Kissinger:

To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal. America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.

We should ask Ruto: is it true that there were American observers in the Parliament on the day they voted for the Financial Bill 2024? Maybe your political enemies made up the story. Could it also be true that parliamentarians received bribes before they voted for the bill? Another rumour? There are other rumours, but who is driving the obsession to pass the bill into law? If the country needs to pay its debt, why not take on the burden, along with your friends who are already enjoying so much?

The task of a government is between the need to satisfy state realities and the welfare of the people it governs. Often, many African governments have tilted towards different economic steps without considering the welfare of their people. They unknowingly separate the people’s wishes, experiences, and priorities from the grand economic plans and realities they claim to address. Well, leaving out the different shenanigans of the politicians in Africa and those in Kenya, policies are created without reading the room.

Ruto and his cohorts have been creating policies upon policies with the claim of stabilising the economy and other supposed grand schemes for the nation. The government’s Finance Bill was supposed to cover the next financial year from July to June, giving the skeletal financial framework of the country. The Bill intended to solve the country’s many economic and financial crises by placing heavy loads on the people without thinking outside the box.

Every act and policy of any country must gain validity from the will and welfare of the people. With the long history of suffering of Kenyans, which Ruto claimed to have hustled through, and the contemporary complications on the survival possibilities of the people, the primary objective of any reasonable government should be to make the people as comfortable as they can get.

The bill sought to increase the taxes on commodities, such as bread, and annual returns on vehicles. The bill put the Motor Vehicle Tax at 2.5 per cent annually, with a minimum benchmark of KES5,000 and not more than KES 100,000, which is safe only for government vehicles and ambulances. Multinational enterprises were put on a 15 per cent tax, and their annual turnover at €750. This also included digital service tax increments, adjustments to withholding taxes, digital content, and VAT. The bill introduced a 16 per cent tax on bread and an excise duty on consumables like cooking oil and other basic items. The SMEs were faced with more taxes and liabilities than in previous years.

The supposed reasoning of the government is to generate more revenue to enable it service the numerous debts it had incurred over the years. It targets about $2.7 billion from the taxes to service the budget deficit and make provisions for the supposed running of the government. Another justification was that the increments would allow the government to meet the IMF requirements and recommendations for Kenya’s economic restructuring and efforts to stabilise critical public services like healthcare, infrastructure, and education.

While the justifications behind these policies might appear convincing, yet the policies themselves, forming the means, are way off the track in achieving any of the objectives. You can not tax people out of poverty because no one gives what he does not have: Nemo dat quod non habet. At the moment, more than 36.1 per cent of the total Kenyan population lives below the poverty line of the country, and the statistics of those living below $1.90 per day have been of regrettable concern since 2023. The country maintains a distressing unemployment rate, with the projection of an increment of 2 per cent before the end of this year, and with about 2.9 million persons unemployed. Aside from these many problems, the rate of job losses across the country has been increasing lately, with more than 70,000 job losses recorded between the end of 2022 and 2023.

Every act and policy of any country must gain validity from the will and welfare of the people. With the long history of suffering of Kenyans, which Ruto claimed to have hustled through, and the contemporary complications on the survival possibilities of the people, the primary objective of any reasonable government should be to make the people as comfortable as they can get. Imposing a 16 per cent tax on bread and oil that people find difficult to buy or any common food they long for, is an evil disguised in the name of doing good. Why not limit them to eating two meals a day and drinking water for dinner?

This begs the question of why the people must be suffocated at every point of governmental inconvenience. The task is not to make policies in a vacuum but to primarily alleviate the suffering of the people at best or ensure there are no complications to their welfare at the least. It is quite unfortunate and unfair that the poor, whom Ruto claims to have hustled with, are left to bear the burden, while the rich and influential bask in pools of the Kenyan commonwealth. The allegations of corrupt practices in the Kenyan government have been at an alarming rate, and one wonders why the government has not looked at the sabre-toothed cankerworms that eat into the economic sanity of the nation.

The same way the economic issue has been handled wrongly is how the protest escalation was handled carelessly. The arrogance of the government blinded its eyes to the need to expediently respond to the plight of the people and catch the protest at its early stage, by taking preliminary steps to avert the crisis and not being confrontational with the same people that put the president in office.

The Kenyan judiciary has been charged with different levels of corrupt practices also, leading to some faceoff between the stakeholders. The misappropriation of the KES 20 billion that was supposedly planned for the Soin-Koru Dam restoration, the KEMSA scandal pointing to the misappropriation of health funds, including the illegal awarding of tenders to the tune of about $72 million during the COVID-19 pandemic, the heavy lootings by Kenya public servants to the tune of $3.8 million just by the end of June 2023, and other lavish lifestyles of officials, are some of the disgraceful issues and instances that have quickened the spirit of the people against unfavourable policies. Amid this crisis, President Ruto, the supposed Hustler-in-Chief, without relating to the plight of the people and failing to show that the country is in urgent need of funds, decided to charter a private jet to both Atlanta and Washington DC, at the cost of about $1.5 million. Spending $1.5 million on a trip when his people suffer? So, can Mr Ruto impose a tax on sanitary pads to recoup? Is the menstruation blood needed for some kind of ritual to remain in power?

It is reasonable that when perseverance becomes too difficult, every human being will resist. This was the case in the Kenya population’s resistance to the Finance Bill 2024. If the government fails to read the room to understand what the people face, it will start a war with its citizens. After the announcement of the Bill, Ruto and the parliament have faced severe opposition and protests, and from 18 June, protests had intensively started from social media and Nairobi, and spread to Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa, Nyeri, and Eldoret. On 20 June, the protest had escalated into a national crisis.

The highlight of this discussion rests on the government’s response to the expression of agitation among its people. The government faced the people like it was fighting its enemies. Some reporters claimed that about 22 people had been killed, 300 injured, and some 50 people arrested by the security operatives as of 26 June. In fact, the President had declared that the protest had turned into a threat to national security, with many “criminals” pretending to be protesters, while intending to terrorise the government. How can Ruto call the citizens he governs criminals?

The same way the economic issue has been handled wrongly is how the protest escalation was handled carelessly. The arrogance of the government blinded its eyes to the need to expediently respond to the plight of the people and catch the protest at its early stage, by taking preliminary steps to avert the crisis and not being confrontational with the same people that put the president in office. I believe that the Parliament’s insensitive attitude that made it go ahead with the Finance Bill is an affront to democracy, which is obvious evidence of its inability to understand the people’s claims. In addition, the latter concession of the President, whilst refusing to sign the bill, is equivalent to medicine after death. Kenya would not be erased from the map if it suspends the passing of the Bill in order to achieve peace and for a more diplomatic approach.

It is more disheartening that the treatment of the people in their biggest moment of vulnerability has come from a man who has claimed to have once been like them. A man who had promised to make their lives comfortable and one who promised to bring sanity to their welfare care. It is important that if there will be anything to savage at all, it is pertinent that Ruto and its government drop the arrogance and show more intentionality about promoting peace without violence. The first solution is not to impose more taxes on people who can barely survive: once again, you can not tax people out of poverty.

“Hustler-in-Chief” treat your people with respect and do not suffocate the suffocating citizenry any further.

Toyin Falola, a professor of History, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at The University of Texas at Austin, is the Bobapitan of Ibadanland.