Kenya’s new president: fight poverty, keep silent about wealth

Kenya’s new President Ruto takes office with great expectations – he should reduce poverty in the country. He himself appears as a man from a humble background, but that is only part of his story.

There is one question that Kenya’s future President William Ruto doesn’t like at all: the question of how he got his wealth. Especially not when she is asked by an interviewer on Kenyan television.

Journalist Ken Mijungu confronted the then Vice President with the results of an opinion poll some time before the election. After that, he was ranked as the most corrupt politician in the country. A statement that bounces off Ruto. Just like all other questions about his fortune, which should make him one of the richest men in Kenya.

Instead, he reacts – as so often – according to the motto: attack is the best defense. “Isn’t your real question: how dare you run for president when you’re just the son of a humble farmer?” he countered.

A tried and tested story

During the election campaign, Ruto kept repeating this rise story: how he managed to work his way to the top despite coming from a modest background. He sold chickens on the street to finance his studies and wore second-hand clothes.

The message to his voters: If you vote for me, you can also create a career like this.

Charged in The Hague

Another topic that Ruto likes to avoid: his indictment before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. After the 2007 elections, Kenya was engulfed in violence and chaos for weeks. Ruto was accused of being partly responsible for murders and expulsions.

But instead of in the courtroom, the accused defended himself primarily in the church. “I ask you to pray for me,” he called on his followers in one of many masses during this time. God’s will should be done.

The procedure then burst, however, due to secular intervention. Witnesses for the prosecution refused to testify. Many of them are said to have been threatened or bribed.

Steady rise

For Ruto, church and politics have always belonged together. As a boy he was an altar boy. He even preached during his time at the university. At the same time, his political career began in the youth organization of the party of the then dictator Daniel Arap Moi.

It wasn’t long before Ruto was elected to Parliament. His next political posts included the office of Minister of Agriculture and finally Vice President.

High expectations

At 55, his political career has now peaked. The Kenyans have high expectations of him.

A man on the street says he should work hard to improve the economic situation, and a woman demands that Ruto create jobs for young people. But she is also convinced: “I think he will change the country.”

During the election campaign, Ruto promised, among other things, to distribute the equivalent of more than 400 million euros to the poor in the country. But where this money is supposed to come from, when Kenya is up to its ears in debt, remains just as unclear as the origin of Ruto’s wealth.