President William Ruto has revealed that the late President Daniel Moi trusted him so much during his early years in government that he gave him a direct telephone line to State House.
According to Ruto, this was a privilege reserved for only a few senior officials in the Kanu regime.
In a candid reflection, Ruto narrated how his once-rocky relationship with Moi evolved into a close friendship marked by trust, mentorship, and shared leadership values.
“I became the only Assistant Minister with a hotline to the President,” Ruto said Monday during the launch of retired Cabinet minister Major (Rtd) Marsden Madoka’s memoir ‘At The Ready’.
The event was held at State House.
“That phone had no secretaries; if it rang, you knew it was the President himself calling. He would say, ‘Where are you? Come and do this and that," he stated.
The President recalled that his early days in politics were anything but easy.
He described how, despite being a Kanu member, he initially fell out of favour with the party leadership.
“When I first ran for Parliament, I was not in very good books with the Kanu government,” Ruto said.
“Moi himself came to Eldoret and told people to elect those who were known, mentioning the names of my rivals. Then he said there were some ‘characters running around’ whom he didn’t know. I was in that crowd.”
Ruto said the comments did not deter him.
“I ran anyway and won the nominations against the odds,” he added.
He told the audience that his outspoken nature early in Parliament earned him a reputation as a “noisy” legislator, but Moi later came to appreciate his zeal.
“Moi used to say this young man is noisy, but he speaks sense,” Ruto said with a smile.
He credited Bishop Ezekiel Yego of the Africa Inland Church (AIC) and other elders with helping mend relations between him and the President.
“They told me, ‘Moi is like your father and you are a Christian, show respect.’ They cornered me, and I had to tone down,” he recalled amid laughter from the audience.
Ruto later joined the Cabinet as Assistant Minister under Madoka, who served as his senior.
The two, he said, shared both serious work and light moments, including friendly disagreements about Moi’s well-known State House luncheons.
“Marsden didn’t go for lunch; he preferred to nap in his office,” Ruto joked.
“He even tried to convince me to join him, but I failed.”
Reflecting on the journey, Ruto praised Moi and Madoka as leaders who shaped his approach to service.
“Madoka was my boss and mentor,” he said.
“He taught me discipline, patience, and respect. Moi, too, showed me that leadership is not about where you come from but how you serve.”
The President lauded Madoka’s memoir as an important record of Kenya’s administrative and political evolution.
“At The Ready is a reflection of a generation that served with humility and selflessness,” he said. “Through his story, future generations will understand where we came from and the sacrifices that built this nation.”
Ruto also used the opportunity to urge today’s leaders to raise the country’s standards of service. “We cannot continue to make peace with mediocrity,” he said.
“We must raise the bar and move from the ordinary to the extraordinary.”
