President William Ruto bows his head as a youth prays in Shembeteng during an empowerment event at State House, Nairobi, August 9, 2025. /SCREENGRAB
In the spirit of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation, President William Ruto on Saturday hosted thousands of Kenyans at State House for an empowerment event he said was meant to boost more than 1,000 small businesses.
State House operatives said the invitees numbered well over “15,000 strong,” with many arriving on foot from the early hours of the morning.
On offer were dozens of water tanks, wheelbarrows, motorbikes, lawn mowers, and generators, among other items.
The occasion also marked the third anniversary since the August 9, 2022, general elections that catapulted Ruto to power.
At the start of the programme, youth — a group central to the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation agenda — were allowed to pray.
Their representative captured the crowd’s attention by delivering the prayer in ‘shembeteng,’ an urban coded variation of Sheng widely spoken in Nairobi’s informal settlements.
Shembeteng is known for its tongue-twisting style, achieved by inserting syllables such as “mbata,” “mbete,” “mbiti,” “mboto,” and “mbutu” into existing Sheng words, giving them a foreign-sounding twist.
“Bana, tungatile macho tupaseji joo,” he began. (Let’s close our eyes and pray).
“Sir Gugda tunajamuleti lembeki, anaku sir Gugda mwinengi, ni we peke neki. Tutaligu Sir Gugda, hatuwezi danagu ma sir negi. Tunapaseji joo sopreti hapa manyugwada, asonjije term zake zambo bila shadre, mbachu! Eeeh, tunapaseji na kuamini, Nimeraa!”
This loosely translates to: “God, we come before you, we have no other God other than you. Bless us God, for we can’t ask any other god. We pray that our President behind here finishes his two terms without trouble. Amen.”
Items that were on offer during the empowerment event at State House, Nairobi, August 9, 2025. /PCSThe prayer drew loud applause from the crowd, which was hosted right in front of the State House.
Ruto bowed all through the brief prayer before fist bumping with the young man.
"I came here on foot, at least let me leave with a motorbike," he pleaded with the President in Sheng, to more applause from the crowd.
Ruto lauded the empowerment drive, saying it “made the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation a reality in our country.”
“Today’s empowerment of more than 1,100 business groups in Nairobi confirms our dedication to uplifting those who have been living at the margins of our society for far too long," Ruto said.
"But we are not stopping there. Hundreds of thousands of small enterprises across the country are being supported with tools, equipment, and funds to drive their businesses because Every Hustle Matters,” he added.
The President revealed that starting next month, 70 young people in each of the country’s 1,450 wards will receive Sh50,000 each to start or boost their businesses in a joint programme between the government and the World Bank.
“This is how the Kenya Kwanza administration is building a more transformed, more inclusive and more equal Kenya,” he added.
