President William Ruto: The Black Boy from Kenya

When President Ruto took office, the whole Sub-continent was happy and very excited; the leadership of the moment has arrived, correctly so. He spoke about many issues no one was able to speak about freely and eloquently.

 

By Nomazulu Thata

He talked about the global lending system that is unfair to African governments: African countries are given lines of credit about 8 times more interest rates than rich and developed countries. Does it make sense to overtax the poor you purport to help? The world money lending bodies know exactly where they can accrue much higher revenues returns than in developed countries and make them perpetual dependents of global financial bodies. The reason why interest rates are exponentially high for African countries is because they are profiled as risky. That aspect about President Ruto made him an African leader of the moment. President Ruto made us proud: albeit, for that moment.

Secondly President Ruto asked lending global institutions to revamp international financial order to better assist countries in the global south. “We are not looking for hand-outs and we are not looking for help from the West”. Said President Ruto. Kenya wants to attract foreign direct investment more than Development aid. Kenya services a debt payment about $10 billion yearly: debt payments unsustainable, exceedingly a complicated refinancing modus operandi destabilizing the local currencies. Those were President Ruto’s words verbatim, positioning himself as a strong voice in the Sub-continent. He was not happy about African Presidents’ photo trips to Western countries that do not give bread “and butter” to ordinary African citizens back home. “When we are invited to western cities, we are literally treated like children; shaffled in buses like school children” This must stop! Ruto spoke. 

Africans, including me, clapped hands and we sang hallelujah because it was President Kagame’s bone of contention. President Kagame was weary about photo-shooting trips of African Presidents to Europe: trips without agenda on their hands but will be forwarded to them on arrival. So, they accept trips to Europe and America not knowing exactly what will be talked about? I found myself singing an old Song that was sung by American slaves back then: “I am going back to Kenya, that part of Africa: I am feeling loneliness, when I remember Africa”. I was very proud of Ruto as President not only of Kenya: Ruto’s voice seemed inclusive to all of us living in the Sub-continent and in the Diaspora. The vehicle of his words resonated with most Africans and Africa Diaspora.

What changed the mind of a President; from a moral high ground, eloquently unpacking chronic African debt challenges to a black boy from Kenya? May I clarify this “Blackness of President Ruto”, whoever knows my son Nqobizitha, he has the same shade of colour black, just like President Ruto. It is not a snide but speaking on a different context altogether. That photo shooting at the oval office of President Biden will never escape me for once. President Ruto sat at his chair while President Biden stood behind him. What did that photo meant to show? It was a strange photo shooting to say the least. A photo that could be interpreted in different stories. It was saying an African President is a boy that dreamt of sitting at the oval office to prove something: for him, it seems it was an opportunity of a lifetime; a dream came true. Ruto beamed with gladness, he had arrived. 

The early days of Ruto’s presidency were promising to us Africans of the Sub-continent. Before we could digest and dissect his firm stance on how African Presidents are treated abroad, Ruto was in Italy together with few other African Presidents: The Prime Minister Georgia Melone invited them for an Italy-Africa summit, a meeting well-meaning because Madam Meloni is trying to engage African governments to highlight the migration issues and to find durable solutions. Most migrants who cross the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea land in Lampedusa first as the shortest coastline to enter Europe. The causes, the push and pull migration must be found and addressed to alleviate carnage in the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea.

From the photo shooting together with the host Prime Minister Meloni, it was the visible presence of President Ruto, whose eloquent speeches cannot be ignored even at the world stage. Do our African presidents walk the talk? Aggrey Mutambo questions the ping pong play of President Ruto who sidelined an African-Russia summit to Rome conference. “In a statement issued after the meeting in Rome, the Kenyan leader walked back some of the criticism, saying instead he supported the pragmatic arrangement of selecting a group of leaders to represent the continent”. Wrote Mutambo. Ruto overrode all that he previously said about African foreign trips, one of which was a summit he openly declined to attend in Russia thereby playing geo-political ping pong between the west and Russia. The Rome summit was meant to discuss mass migration of African youth to Europe. Kenya is, however, not the sending countries of these youths seeking better life in Europe. The voices of sending countries were not heard, what the purpose of the summit was trying to address.

In a short space of time, President Ruto was in Washington at the oval office of President Biden. The purpose of the meeting is to be understood in the footnotes. In a joined press conference between President Biden and President Ruto, Biden said, the two countries are friends and Kenya is a non-member ally of NATO. My humble question is, was the Kenyan nation officially informed about this recent development between USA and Kenya? Henry Kissinger once said: ‘It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.’ Does President William Ruto know this statement. Has he adequately researched the implications of military alliance with NATO in the heart of Africa? Why is it happening at the same breath: on one hand, West African countries, mostly in the Sahel region are forcefully removing France and USA military bases in their countries on one hand, on the other hand, Kenya is seeking closer military ties with America and NATO. This does not add up to full total.

That photo shooting of Biden and Ruto after the dubious alliance agreement at Biden’s oval office is disturbing to well-meaning Africans. It can be interpreted to mean that one is the master, and the other is a Black boy from Kenya. Pun intended. How do we demand official engagements at eye-level contacts between Caucasians and the Blacks if black presidents can behave like puddles to them at any given time and space? There is a known adage: “you can remove a man from the ghetto, but you cannot remove the Ghetto inside him”. Based on this adage, I am saying: you can remove colonialism out of Africa, but you cannot remove coloniality inside us. Pun intended.

To his credit, Ruto talks about AID to Africa is dead aid. Africa needs trade cooperation with interested nations: “We are not begging from the west; Kenya is a rich country endowed with natural resources”. At the same breath, Ruto signs an agreement with Middle East countries to legally send Kenyan women to be domestic workers in Saudi, formalizing slavery. Is this action slave trade of 500 years slave trade in reverse? Ms. Beatrice Elachi, a parliamentarian characterizes Ruto, a down-right misogynist, rightly so. A diplomatic agreement of countries at that level to send Kenyan women as slave-like domestic workers to Middle East countries that have low opinion of women, let alone black women is just below the pale. There are no adequate words to describe this action. Abhorred!

President Ruto is not alone: There is another photo shooting that is equally disturbing: It is non other than President Ramaphosa of South Africa. He evidently loves his top job as President of the great Republic. After the formation of BRICS, President Ramaphosa is large in photos in the moulds of either Russia or China Presidents. In photo shootings he stands out because much as he loves and enjoys this First Civil Service job, unlike his counterparts, Presidents Putin, and Xi Jinping who are wholly at the service of their prosperous nations and zero corruption. Ramaphosa has done absolutely nothing for the black South African population. Russia and China have zero tolerance to corruption in their countries. It defeats my little mind to see Ramaphosa so Presidents jovial and convivial in photos with these two no-nonsense President Putin and Xi Jinping. Here is a whole President of SA who manages to open a bank account with his mattress and a sofa at his Pala-Pala home residence. It appears everything is possible in our beloved Africa. A bank account with a sofa in the sitting room! When he was found out, the case fizzled out; he got Scot free with criminality of that magnitude. That is Africa for you. In China, criminality and corruption of that magnitude means a death sentence even if you are a government official. Well, in Africa, unwritten laws are different; South Africa is not China after all. 

Another interesting photo shooting was when President Mnangagwa visited Scotland. He is on a sanctions list and it was a one-off opportunity to visit the United Kingdom. Because of sanctions, President Mnangagwa was not allowed to stray, but was confined to conference premises: Mnangagwa got what he wanted, a photo shooting with BoJo.  Boris Johnson was supposed to open the international conference on climate change in Glasgow. However, he got ambushed on the sidelines of the conference to give a photo shooting with President ED Mnangagwa. Looking at this photo, it openly tells two pathetic stories. BoJo who was at great pains to have been caught in a photo shooting with President Mnangagwa. BoJo’s body language even in a humble photo told it all, he preferred not to near President Mnangagwa let alone to be photographed with Mugabe mark two. But on the other hand, Mnangagwa got what he wanted to send the message home with evidence that he arrived! Pikinini President was evidently proud in that photo shooting with BoJo. 

This is what we mean when we say colonialism was removed in Africa, but the coloniality in us is still intact. Former colonialists know this, and they use it to their advantage. These sad contradictions in African governments are galling as they impede development. Colonialists gave Africans the political independence, but they made sure they did not give up their grip global financial interests. Gogo Aubrey Matshiqi said in one of his exclusive interviews with Sizwe Walsh Mpofu: African politicians are supposed to be given political power to mess up; corrupt them and send them to prison for corruption charges. Former President Zuma has been in prison. The next one to be imprisoned is President Cyriel Ramaphosa. The Phala Phala corruption scandal will not go or wash away. The President still needs to show some remorse about his two bank accounts: one with his sofa and the other with the mattress at the posh exclusive farm residence in Phala Phala. Sadly, South Africa will be colony again.    

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