Introduction
The unfolding political landscape in the United States provide a unique template on how countries can remedy their societies from collapse. President Biden’s decision to step aside from pursuing a second term amid pressure from his own party and pass the torch to VP Kamala Harris signifies a deep sense of patriotism, maturity, and commitment to America’s greater good. Of course, it must have been painful to relinquish the spot he (Biden) was already guaranteed as the incumbent President, and we all saw the emotional pain in many of his supporters faces and commentary and yet, as the President himself acknowledged, “it was the right thing to do”. And with that, he endorsed VP Kamala Harris to carry on the torch. It seems that only in America is this possible and yet there are countries around the world desperate for this kind of discourse to prevent anarchy not the least of which is Kenya.
Kenya is a hot spot following the ongoing anti-government protests led by GEN Zs triggered by the passage of the passage of the Finance Bill 2024. Even though the bill was “withdrawn” the widespread protests across the country and President William Ruto’ onslaught against the country’s youth in response that resulted in the killing of hundreds of youths, abductions, and detention of others evokes memories of Kenya’s infamous 2007-2008 Post Election violence that shocked the world’s conscience. This most recent crackdown comes in the heels of his (Ruto) historic state visit to the United States at the invitation of President Joe Biden where he was accorded a state visit, the highest honors by the United States government. The protests in Kenya are still raging and have been aggravated by Ruto himself in manner he responded by deploying Kenya’s notoriously brutal Police who have been accused of firing live bullets against the unarmed youths and causing hundreds of deaths, and the military exposed the underbelly of Ruto’s vastly dysfunctional government with grave consequences to the country. Ruto has innocent Kenyans’ blood on his hands and must be held accountable. His response has fueled momentum and galvanized Kenyans across the country against him as calls for his RESIGNATION or REMOVAL (“RUTO MUST GO) grow. It is imperative that America and the rest of the world take proper notice and take appropriate measures to mitigate further harm to Kenyans.
Background:
The ongoing protests against Ruto have been long time coming. The foundation started with biting economic decline and his (Ruto) indifference thereto. He reneged on his campaign pledges to improve the economy by cutting taxes and prioritizing the downtrodden “Hustlers” he rode on to the presidency by making a 180 turn and his base felt deceived. He raised taxes at the urging of IMF while he and his cronies in government lived in opulence. He filled the government with unsuitable, corrupt, and incompetent staff, many of whom are his tribesmen and cronies bedeviled with corruption and a myriad of crimes. Together, they engaged in a looting spree of public coffers at unprecedent levels, borrowing trillions of shillings with nothing to show for it. Ruto misconstrued his job and became a self-appointed celebrity president who spoke on the world stage on matters irrelevant to Kenyans priorities, became an itinerant president with more than 150 luxurious and exorbitant international trips within two years that placed inordinate financial pressure on Kenya’s meager resources. He ignored his primary job as Kenya’s President and became a self-appointed pseudo spokesman for Africa and the IMF. For all practical intent and purposes, Kenya is a vassal state insofar as its affairs and interactions with the outside world are concern but it is exacting a very high cost on ordinary Kenyans who desperately need relief from the debilitating grip of their government.
While gallivanting around the world advancing his celebrity president bona fides, his lieutenants and cronies back home were pillaging public coffers and living large, laundering the loot by buying high-end items, homes, apartments, helicopters, high-end vehicles, clothing and accessories, publicly flaunting their ill-gotten wealth at fundraisers, traveling with motorcades and outriders, it, budgetary allocation of hundreds of millions shillings to Ruto, his deputy, and chief minister’s spouses, “confidential” budget allocations in the billions, name it, Kenya has endured it.
To fund their lifestyles, he (Ruto) ended monthly sustenance stipends for the elderly and most vulnerable, cut education funding and made it inaccessible to Kenya’s deserving bright students, ended all subsidies that cushioned the poor against price increases on daily sustenance commodities, he borrowed exponentially both in the domestic and foreign markets. In the domestic market he crowded out private enterprise from accessing capital while saddling the country in higher international debt at 5 times the rate of his predecessor notwithstanding his campaign pledge not to borrow any more. There is not ONE (1) tangible project to show for Ruto’s incremental borrowing, instead it is the lavish lifestyles that Ruto and his pose engage in. Ruto compounded the already dire circumstances he created by raising taxes through the Finance Bill 2024 at the urging of the IMF at the most inopportune time when it was clear to all that it was the wrong move, and it will create a revolt. He was forewarned but he was tone deaf and disconnected from realities on the ground. Therefore, it is no surprise that GEN Zs took to the street to protest Ruto’s excesses and by responding the way he did, killing many of them, he exacerbated the situation for all concerned. He rendered himself unfit to continue serving as President and his attempts to backtrack with half-baked cosmetic measures or rapprochement are too little too late, damage is already done. Ruto’s survivalist gimmicks, including temporarily firing his entire cabinet, were simply designed to hoodwink the public.
Ruto must be held personally Accountable
Unless Ruto is held personally accountable for his misconduct, the country is doomed for generations to come. Normalizing Ruto’s conduct is not only an insult to Kenya but is also a bad model for governance and civilization. For someone with so much blood and a trail of deaths in his wake to be allowed to perpetrate mayhem on the people as president causes irreparable harm to the people and simply sends a wrong message of the low value placed on the population. No one with Ruto’s record will be permitted to run any government entity in America even at the local municipality level, why do you look the other way when it is Kenya? Why do you coddle him so much? You are dooming the country’s future, WHY?
Ruto Reappoints Cabinet and gives the Middle Finger to Development Partners & GEN Zs
At the height of the protests, Ruto “withdrew” the offending bill and fired his entire cabinet theoretically for incompetency and non-performance. Obviously, he did this to dial down the political temperatures in the country but barely two weeks later, Mr. Ruto reappointed most of them back, making it a complete mockery of the protesters and his own feigned righteous indignation. It was an insult even to development partners including the United States who urged him to appoint people of integrity to the ministerial dockets. According to the report by the vetting committee shared with parliament, there were at least 150 memoranda from the public submitted to the vetting committee objecting to the nominee’s confirmation on account of their misconduct and criminal wrongdoing ranging from corruption, fraud, forgeries, among others. One of the nominees, Julius Migos Ogamba, the Education Cabinet Secretary, was accused of forgeries and fraud for having commissioned as a commissioner of oaths, forged documents that were then used to defraud the court in Nyamira but that did not matter nor change his confirmation to one of the most consequential ministerial dockets, education. He will still oversee running the ministry with that kind of background with billions of donors and taxpayers’ funds at his disposal. Call it genius on Ruto’s part but many see it for what it is, tomfoolery and chicanery of the highest order. Ruto’s survivalist gimmicks only serve as proof of his manipulative persona and how diabolical he really is. But in fairness to Ruto, this is not an epiphany about his character or conduct, it is quintessential and innately Ruto to conduct himself as such. His aura of invincibility is intoxicating even to himself, and why not? He keeps getting away with all manner of atrocities, this is perhaps too minor.
Collapsing Economy under Ruto
There is no question that Kenya’s economic standing has worsened since Ruto became President. GEN Zs revolt is justified at every level. Many companies have closed shop and moved their jobs elsewhere because of draconian tax measure he implemented to raise revenue for the exchequer. The problem is, Ruto did not read the economics 101 memo that he needs to expand the tax base FIRST and revenue will follow and that taxing more of the same resource is counterintuitive and will diminish the tax collections. The government is INSOLVENT and relies heavily on domestic and international debt to operate. Salaries and pension payments are delayed or months behind. Domestically, Ruto’s government maintains an incestuous relationship with banks where it borrows excessively and has crowded out private sector from accessing liquidity, as a result banks are subsidized by taxpayers because a huge percent of tax collections goes into paying interest charges leaving nothing for capital investments. Additionally, the banks are buoyed by stolen public funds that keep their balance sheets afloat and so it is a vicious cycle of ruinous voodoo economics that only serve the interests of the political class and government elites. Ruto’s idea of stimulating the economy is endless launches and relaunches of spurious capital projects to hood wink the public when in fact there is NO progress in any of them, they are conduits of corruption and money laundering with NOTHING to show for it.
The state has RAIDED workers pension funds and other self-help groups that now simply are not only underfunded but also cannot pay retirement benefits when they are due, retirees are suffering. Now Ruto has resorted to selling State owned Assets at throw-away prices to his cronies and friends reminiscent of the liquidation that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union when Oligarchs grabbed Russia’s national assets for themselves at nominal prices, if any. Ruto is selling even Strategic National assets such as the Airports and Seaports that will compromise Kenya’s sovereignty, endanger her security and elevate its vulnerabilities to undue foreign influence, JKIA workers boycott public participation session on Adani takeover | Nation. and it makes sense because there is a direct correlation between the national economic ruin and the political class and elites windfall fortunes under Ruto over the last two years since he assumed office. Many of his cronies and friends grabbed and amassed obscene wealth in the shortest period possible, his cabinet and top officials are billionaires, drive high-end guzzlers often with outriders, they own massive real estate properties, helicopters, and many other assets they didn’t own before coming to office. It is obvious where the money intended for ordinary citizens is going to, to line up Ruto and his henchmen and women’s pockets. To donors, and so-called development partners, that is your taxpayers’ funds being stolen while saddling those who can least afford and who never benefited from the money with the repayment burden, that is NOT fair. SO, don’t fund this corruption, you are fueling it.
What America and the world must be reminded about Ruto
Kenya has never had the kind of great luck of cordial and friendly relationship with the United States has it has under the stewardship of US Ambassador Meg Whitman, the kindest, friendliest, business oriented American ambassador ever posted to Kenya. Ambassador Whitman took Ruto under her wings to help the country prosper. Kenya was poised for a huge economic paradigm shift for the better but what did Ruto do with the opportunity? He squandered it, focusing on the wrong issues that have plunged the country into uncertainty and seems unhinged and does not know how to extricate himself or the country from the corner he has backed everyone to.
This is only to remind America and the world of Ruto’s real known record, triggered by his response to the protesters by ordering the crackdown by live bullets against the protesters, angrily threatening them and deploying the military against them.
After the 2007-2008 post-election violence in Kenya, America and other Western democracies shunned Ruto, rightly so. In America or elsewhere in the civilized world, anyone with the record of the atrocities as those committed by Ruto would be serving long stretches in prison, at the very minimum, they will not be in office in any capacity let alone as president of a country and yet he’s being embraced by America, it is irreconcilable.
The United States, with her strong, historical, and enduring bond with the people of Kenya, must distinguish her relationship from Ruto’s government and the Kenyan people. Those of us who know Ruto also know that he has not changed his ways from his checkered past that runs decades, he’s a deeply flawed man who carried his innate flaws to office as president, he is not reformed and cannot be rehabilitated; if America wants to preserve its relationship with Kenya, and the stability in the most stable country in the region, they must come to terms that Ruto is NOT a reliable partner in that endeavor and detach herself from him lest he antagonizes Kenyans against America. As it stands now, the man has been exposed as a liability to Kenya, the region, to Africa, to America, and to the rest of the world for that matter, just weeks after being feted with the highest honor of a historic State visit to the Whitehouse by President Biden. He has been rejected by Kenyans on account of his own conduct despite multiple opportunities availed to him to reform himself. Despite his public demeanor, a well-choreographed front, America and the world should bear in mind that Ruto’s repertoire of atrocities as chronicled below makes him a uniquely dangerous and unfit partner to engage with. Continuing to coddle him constitutes of enablement, it emboldens him to commit the atrocities he is notorious for.
Ruto has Blood on his Hands
In the latest crackdown against protestors, Ruto responded angrily with threats, calling the peaceful protestors treasonous criminals and saying that he will deal firmly with them. Indeed, he unleashed the notoriously brutal Kenya Police who used all manner of brute force against them including live bullets, extrajudicial killings, abductions, unlawful detentions and other atrocities that have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Kenyans and many more still missing and presumed dead; https://africanlegalstudies.blog/2024/07/11/behind-the-protests-mask-in-kenya-extrajudicial-killings-abductions-and-court-sanctioned-militarization-of-the-freedom-to-demonstrate/. Ruto himself, rather than own up to his role in the government’s murderous rampage, has sought to distance himself in the best light possible https://www.voanews.com/a/ruto-paints-kenya-a-democracy-after-crashing-gen-z-protests-/7700331.html. He has deflected blame elsewhere and even fired the Police Inspector General and the Cabinet, but they were all working under his instructions. He has ordered crackdown on dissenting voices and targeted them for arrest on spurious trumped charges and planted evidence. None of these should surprise anyone because Ruto’s record is replete with innumerate instances of human rights violations including murder.
Ruto’s Links to Extrajudicial Killings and Crimes against humanity
Ruto’s dalliance with sleaze and extrajudicial killings to amass wealth, obtain and keep power can be traced to1992 under former President the late Daniel Arap Moi. Straight out of college at the University of Nairobi, he teamed up with Cyrus Jirongo to head Moi’s Youth for Kanu ’92 (YK92), a youth political lobby group tasked with keeping Moi in power. Moi was under intense political pressure both domestically and internationally to cede power and expand democratic space. As head of the YK92 Secretariat, Ruto and Jirongo splashed and dished billions of newly printed money to bribe voters to keep Moi in power and in the process devalued the Kenyan currency by multiples that resulted in precipitous economic decline lasting many years. Additionally, Ruto oversaw the ethnic skirmishes targeting ethnic groups including Kikuyus, Kisiis, and Luos that were considered anti-government or opposition friendly at the time. Many lives were lost in 1992 in many hotspots in the Rift valley such as Molo, Kitale, etc. Many of these spots were inhabited by ethnic groups from outside Rift Valley. Mainly Kikuyus and Kisiis. Ruto ensured the vicious cycle of violence repeated every election cycle culminating in the 2008-2008 post-election violence where thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands were permanently displaced, mainly from his (Ruto) native Rift Valley.
Before becoming President, Mr. Ruto’s repertoire includes some of the most macabre atrocities known to mankind just by the sheer brutality and harm to humanity he caused not the least of which are the 2007-2008 post-election violence in Kenya. Simply stated, Mr. Ruto masterminded, funded, and oversaw the killing of hundreds of Kenyans including the infamous KIAMBAA Church Massacres in his hometown of Eldoret where tens of women and children were burned alive in church following the disputed 2007 presidential election results Kenyans recall the screams of the dying in burning church – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com); Mutilated bodies found a week after Kenya massacre | Reuters; the displacement of hundreds of thousands Kenyans of mainly Kikuyu and Kisii ethnic background residing in Ruto’s rural county of Uasin Gishu and neighboring counties in the larger Rift Valley Province. The International Criminal Court (ICC) charged Ruto et al with crimes against humanity and displacement of populations. He, his acolytes, and lawyers interfered with witnesses, many of whom were eliminated (killed), How individuals linked to 2007/08 ICC cases died mysteriously (the-star.co.ke); Discovery of witness’s mutilated body feeds accusations of state killings | Kenya | The Guardian. The net effect of witnesses elimination was the ICC dropping charges against Ruto in November 2023, ICC prosecutors halt 13-year Kenya investigation that failed to produce any convictions | AP News; Ruto and Sang Case (icc-cpi.int). One of his lawyers, Mr. Paul Gicheru surrendered to the ICC to face witness tampering charges. During his trial, Ruto’s name was mentioned more than 100 times as the main architect for witness tampering, among other allegations of criminal culpability on his part. He (Gicheru) was later granted bail and traveled to Kenya, he was found dead under mysterious circumstances shortly after Ruto assumed the presidency, Gicheru dead, the mysteries of ICC’s Kenya case fall in a black hole – JusticeInfo.net.
In addition the atrocities above, Mr. Ruto has been linked to multiple other murders including Arnold Kipyegon Kenei, in what is believed to be cover-up to eliminate witnesses of a botched military deal Kenei Murder Revived: Father Turns Heat on DP Ruto – Kenyans.co.ke, DP Ruto office guard in Sh39b fake arms probe found dead – The Standard (standardmedia.co.ke); IEBC IT chief Chris Musando Kenyan election official Chris Msando ‘tortured to death’ – BBC News, businessman and Ruto critic Jacob Juma Late Jacob Juma accused DP Ruto of having obsessed plan to Assassinate him – YouTube, Ruto was also linked to the murder of Cynthia Mwikali Mukio, a personal maid to his wife Rachel who was rumored to have disclosed and exposed him of abusing his wife, The Body was found – News & Politics – Kenya Talk, the list is long.
Ethnic chauvinism replay in Ruto’s government
Mr. Ruto has extended his ethnic chauvinism and bias to his government. First, he adamantly refused to restore the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their homes in Rift Valley or any reparations. Then he systematically replaced high ranking officials from these communities with an inordinate number of his tribesmen and tribeswomen to run key government departments, conduct that continues to fuel ethnic resentment reminiscent of the lead to the 2007-2008 violence. Left unchecked, this is likely to precipitate tribal conflict especially when Kenya changes administrations and the new government takes corrective action to rebalance the government’s workforce to reflect the face of Kenya.
Ruto’s Personal Corruption
Ruto’s penchant for venality is well known and documented, a vice the United States government is particularly averse to. His entire adult career has been in government, and all the wealth in his name is attributable to his position in government. Politics and government have been exceptionally rewarding and lucrative for Ruto in Kenya. His position in government has afforded him immeasurable, unprecedent and unfettered access to public resources which he has turned into a personal piggy bank. He has laundered and accumulated Billions of shillings in cash and assets from public coffers; with possessions including thousands of acres of land, helicopters, buildings, hotels and cash all supposedly on government salary Five choppers, 18,500 acres part of Ruto’s guarded assets — state (the-star.co.ke). All of his wealth can be traced to public corruption including kickbacks from government contracts; outright thievery of public projects including the brazen stealing of Billions of shillings earmarked for Aror and Kimwarer dams in Rift Valley The Real Story Behind the Dams Scam,Lies, Dam Lies, and Intrigues: The Arror and Kimwarer Dams Saga (theelephant.info); years ago he was criminally charged with conversion of land belonging to the Kenya Pipeline Commission which he unlawfully sold and retained the proceeds Ruto suspended over Kenya Pipeline land sale – Business Daily (businessdailyafrica.com), during the trial he used his position in government to thwart justice by appointing the key prosecution witness to a parastatal job to buy her silence, https://nation.africa/kenya/news/politics/fraud-case-ruto-gave-job-to-key-potential-witness–764682. The case was later thrown out when the key witness refused to testify out of fear for her life; Ruto triumphs in Kenya fraud case » Capital News (capitalfm.co.ke) he unlawfully converted land belonging to Kenya Aviation Authority and built a hotel on it, the Weston Hotel DP Ruto: Weston Hotel land was acquired illegally – YouTube.
Forcible seizure of private and public lands
Mr. Ruto, who has an uncanny, excessive penchant for land ownership, has managed to rise from a landless peasant to one of the largest landowners in Kenya, all through brute force and corruption. There is a litany of cases and instances in the public domain that detail the dastardly tactics he has employed over the years to seize land from others, many of them elderly, infirm and vulnerable that he has rendered destitute. The most recent incident occurred just a few months ago when he forcibly grabbed 5000 acres of the Ndabibi land in Naivasha for himself and evicted and jailed Kikuyu occupiers who had lived on it for generations, Naivasha MP Jane Kihara defends President Ruto’s ownership of 5000-acre land (citizen.digital) Indeed, many of his cronies defend his conduct in exchange for pollical favors and patronages as in this case above. Ruto also forcibly grabbed 100 acres of land belonging to a displaced elderly Post Election Violence victim 70-year-old Adrian Muteshi (now deceased) and refused to vacate it when it came to light of what he had done. He was eventually forced out by the courts and ordered to pay 5 million shillings in restitution to the victim Kenya deputy president loses case linked to poll violence | Reuters, Ruto never paid. In yet another case, he unlawfully seized public land where he built the Weston Hotel, DP Ruto finally admits Weston Hotel land was illegally acquired (citizen.digital); and when he wanted to expand it, he targeted the adjacent Lang’ata Primary School and tried to forcibly convert the school playground for his Hotel business. When the school children protested, he used the security apparatus to teargas them Kenyan police tear gas primary school children protesting removal of playground – The Washington Post. He only stopped when there was public ire from Kenyans, even from Pope Francis, Pope condemns ‘private developers’ for land grab – Nairobi News (nation.africa). His attempts to displace the children were thwarted but only temporary. There are innumerate cases of Ruto corruptly grabbing land to count that go many years back including corruptly selling government land for which he was fired as minister for education, Ruto suspended over Kenya Pipeline land sale – Business Daily (businessdailyafrica.com). The problem now is that the vice has gotten worse and spread all over the country, resulting in further destitution among the weak and most vulnerable in society.
Endemic Corruption in Ruto’s Government
In Kenya today, Government and Politics are the only lucrative industries that once in, one is guaranteed high “profits” with little to no effort at all. As a leader and now as President Ruto has fostered the culture of corruption by surrounding himself with a cabal of enablers of the vice, people of questionable character and backgrounds, an army of bandits. The corruption continues unabated and has metastasized under Ruto primarily because he packed government ministries and departments with corrupt, incompetent cronies and tribesmen, many of whom already had criminal cases pending against them prior to their appointments. All the cases against them have been dropped such as the case against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua Kenyan court drops $60 million corruption case against deputy president | Reuters; the murder charge against recently purged Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa, Aisha Jumwa murder charge dropped, CS to be made state witness | Nation; another cabinet secretary Mithika Lunturi has been accused of a litany of crimes including rape, corruption, etc, NTV Kenya: Linturi says he has 35 cases pending in court but he still wound up in the cabinet in charge of the ministry of Agriculture where he oversaw the biggest fake fertilizer heist that cost Kenyan farmers billions of shillings, MP wants Linturi to quit over fake fertiliser scam – The Standard (standardmedia.co.ke). Another MP, John Waluke, was found guilty of corruption and fined billions of shillings in fines and restitution or a prison sentence of decades but even that did not deter the powers that be from appointing him to a high position in government, Jubilee nominates jailed MP John Waluke to be PSC Commissioner | Nation. Waluke is a close friend of Mr. Ruto and as soon as Ruto came into office, he was released, Sirisia MP John Waluke freed on Ksh.10M cash bail (citizen.digital) and his case later “disappeared”. As if not enough, MP Waluke audaciously went after the government for 300 Million shillings he claims the government owes him for prosecuting him for corruption, Govt owes me Sh300m, Waluke insists as he leaves jail | Nation. And you know what, he might actually be awarded and collect on the claim. In Kenya’s rotten political and government cesspools, crime and corruption pays big.
The decay has spread to devolved units (counties) to unprecedented levels and robbed citizens of any hope for the future https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/national/article/2001497478/sh235m-enough-to-see-state-drop-sh19b-graft-case-against-obado; it is business as usual; a race/competition between the national and county governments to steal from the public thus leaving nothing for any meaningful development. https://www.citizen.digital/news/eacc-investigating-21-sitting-and-former-governors-over-corruption-n326362. The protests against the were exacerbated by corrupt government officials openly flaunting ill gotten wealth to the chagrin of the population wallowing in abject poverty, Kenya MPs flaunting wealth on social media added fuel to tax protests | Reuters; investors are not immune from the vice as many are extorted for bribes before contracts can be granted or conveniently imposed restrictions are removed US accuses Kenyan officials of corruption in contract awards (voanews.com).
Arrogant, corrupt, criminal, and abusive government
It is a known fact that Kenyan government officials under Ruto are the most arrogant and corrupt of any regime in Kenya’s history, but they go even further in lording over the public with abuses. One example is Ruto’s chief economic advisor and loyalist who was a one time severe critic of him, David Ndii who has made no qualms of his disdain for the public by the condescending utterances toward the public, so much so that some innovative Kenyans created a website dedicated to chronicling Mr. Ndii’s disdain for Kenyans, https://indiignity.co.ke. Thereare multiple other incidents of high government officials and high-ranking politicians insulting the public. The point of this is that the government has run amok and is out of sync with the public, it is a criminal enterprise cloaked as a government.
Conclusion – Don’t let Ruto Hold Kenya Hostage
The US government should reconsider its relationship with President William Ruto and stop coddling him. Kenya may be a vassal state and that is OK but don’t give Ruto aid and comfort, doing so emboldens him to commit atrocities against the weak and vulnerable in Kenya. He’s determined to crash any form of dissent to tighten his grip on power and that makes him more dangerous. Don’t be fooled by his charm, or his silver tongue, he is a known pathological liar, a snake oil salesman. Kenya needs a reset; the country needs help to heal and that CANNOT happen under Ruto. To heal, Ruto must necessarily be out of office, he should not be allowed to hold more than 50 million Kenyans hostage. And yes, detachment means reinstating some if not all the sanctions placed against him following the 2007-2008 post-election violence in Kenya when America considered him one of the primary architects of the atrocities. America should let Kenyans, and the world know where she stands, whether with Kenyans or Mr. William Ruto, cannot be both. The US should act now to save innocent lives and mitigate further harm to the otherwise great relationship between the people of Kenya and America. Not acting or doing anything will embolden Ruto and many more lives will be lost needlessly. Ruto will not stop unless he is stopped, it is already too late for many who have lost their lives at his behest, but no more lives should be lost for failure to act. America’s inaction is tantamount to connivence and Ruto will construe America’s inaction as a tacit endorsement of his barbaric leadership; he is already emboldened by his recent visit to Washington, and he will continue committing human rights atrocities unless he stopped. Please ACT.
