It is said that when President Daniel Moi visited a constituency, area politicians would spell out the various problems people were facing that needed urgent government intervention.
Moi would listen and after making his own remarks in response, he would conclude by saying “kaeni hivyo hivyo” (stay like that). This was translated by many to mean Moi was saying he heard the concerns and problems, but there was nothing he was going to do about it.
At least Moi was being honest—or so it would appear. What we have now is vastly different from how past presidents, including Moi, responded to people's cries for help. His chops and accolades for leading our country to independence and well-earned title of national hero and nation’s founder aside, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was seen by many as implementing economic policies that only benefitted one community and did nothing to ease inequality in the country.
When Moi took over from Kenyatta, he continued the same economic policies but this time favouring a different community while at the same time doing everything he could to dismantle and neuter the community which was favoured before.
Our first and second presidents had one other thing in common: besides their proclivity and even wanton desire to favour only their respective communities; there was epic corruption in their respective governments.
So much so that by the time Moi was winding up his 24 years of inept governance, Kenyans had had enough of the corruption and bad governance and resoundingly said no to Moi’s handpicked successor and, instead, overwhelmingly elected Mwai Kibaki.
Kibaki did his best to be a beacon of hope for the country, and even though he gets plenty of credit for turning the country’s economy around; he allowed nepotism, tribalism and corruption to blossom in his government. These vices had a limiting and, in many cases, crippling effect on the progress the country was making.
When now retired President Uhuru Kenyatta took over from Kibaki, no one expected much from his government, other than continuation of the same eating as usual except this time it would be those connected to Uhuru who would be doing the eating.
So much so that by the time 2017 came around for the general election, Uhuru was resoundingly rejected at the polls. Determined to remain in power, he and his people opted to just cook the numbers to give him victory, but the Supreme Court said no.
The country was once again looking at the barrel of a gun and wondering if this time she could avoid the bullet as she did in 2008.
The worry was diffused when President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga shook hands in the now infamous handshake.
Say about it what you wish, and trash it as much as you wish if you must, but the handshake saved the country from going to the dogs.
If the handshake saved the country from going to the dogs as it did, it also helped propel William Ruto to office as the country’s fifth president.
History has recorded and will show in perpetuity that Ruto masterfully exploited the handshake by casting Raila across the country as a 'dynasty'. In Mt Kenya, he cast the Azimio leader as an unwelcome person in State House, and one who was being sneaked in through the backdoor by a fellow dynasty.
This charge came wrapped in a box full of lies and misinformation, which hoi polloi bought hook, line and sinker.
Judging from where things stand today, Ruto has failed to deliver on what he promised because it was unrealistic, to say the least, and even more importantly, the structural problems the country faces require not a political opportunist, but someone who understands economics and has the guts to do what needs to be done. This includes firing useless or incompetent people in government and taking corruption head-on, something the President has shown he's unwilling to do.
In other words, instead of fixing the economy, the head of state is counting on rigging himself back into office in 2027.