SOCIETY TALK: Why Ruto needs to throw in the towel

Here's my advice to President William Ruto: please give up. You are unlikeable. You will get no redemption. But you will make history.

When the people were singing praises of Hustler Nation during the 2020 campaigns, I was breaking a sweat every weekend, turning my social commentaries into a political expression of how wrong we would be to pick you. 

I was insulted in the comments. Called a sellout who has been paid by the opposition. I was not. In fact, I was very critical of the previous government. At the expense of exposing myself, I was probably one of those people former President Uhuru Kenyatta mentioned in his speech as he was angrily expressing why he left Twitter. After all, I still unofficially call him Kamwana. 

When the people were taking to the streets in Mombasa sometime in 2021, I was stuck in a tuk-tuk, heavily pregnant, watching the hundreds of unemployed youths of Mombasa screaming and chanting your name.

A feeling of dread overcame me. I had a moment of insight, where I felt deep in my bones that one day during your reign, these same people will march the same way but against you. 

I had no way of knowing but after the events of June last year, I went back into my files and dug out that article. Right there in black and white was my three-year prediction of how one day during your stint as President, the same people would have endured too much and they would protest against you.

They did. You didn't listen and numerous young Kenyans lost their lives because of it. As we all watched the BBC Africa Eye documentary last week, rightfully titled ‘Blood Parliament’, the feelings resurfaced. You might have doused the fire of the people last year when you agreed not to pass the Finance Bill 2024 and to make certain budget cuts, but we never really forgot. 

Now that a foreign news outlet has exposed the tyranny and lack of accountability of your government, it has set off the uproar again. It has been a year since the protests that led to the untimely death of many young Kenyans. Who has been held accountable? As we have seen from the documentary and multiple videos from the past year, the culprits were none other than the military, whose sole purpose is to protect the Kenyan people.

Our defence forces are in place to protect the people of Kenya from foreign threats. Not to protect the President of Kenya, who was elected by the people of Kenya, from the very same people of Kenya.

We are the people of Kenya. We deserve to be treated as such. We pay taxes to fund the military and government sectors gladly because their mission is to serve the people. Not to murder the people in cold blood.

You have lost the respect and patience of the people. For a mother to throw a shoe at her child, it means she has reached her wits’ end. I would know, I am a mother. I have thrown many a shoe in my time.

As such, when I saw that shoe flying at your head last Sunday in Migori county, I felt that frustration deep in my core. The people are over it. They are over the lies, the lack of accountability and false promises. 

To lose the respect of your people to the point of them chanting “lies” every time you speak, or to have shoes thrown at you in the middle of a speech, should give anyone who loves their country sleepless nights. There is nothing more alarming than losing the respect of your own people.  

This is why I predicted that you will be a one-term President. Not only do I see my prediction coming true, I also foresee that you will be remembered as the worst President we ever had.