Wednesday’s Talanta Bell Ringing Ceremony at the Nairobi Securities Exchange was meant to spotlight innovation and economic growth. Instead, it became a stage for President William Ruto to issue a direct and unexpected appeal to a weary nation: “Please don’t send me home in 2027.
It was a plea that stopped Kenyans in their tracks. Not for its humility but for its irony. How could the self-declared ‘Chief Hustler’, who rose to power on promises of economic upliftment and hustler empowerment, now beg for more time, when his policies have deepened the very inequality he vowed to eliminate?
“The cynics may say I am lying… but what if they are wrong?” Ruto asked. But it’s not cynicism driving Kenyans’ discontent it’s lived experience: record taxes, joblessness, broken pledges, and a government whose extravagance is blind to the daily suffering on the streets.
Ruto claims his vision is “disciplined” and “deliberate.” But to many, his leadership has been defined by contradictions, opulence at the top, and slogans replacing substance. With 2027 looming on the horizon, this plea felt like an admission: the people have stopped believing.
The President may want ten years but if current trends continue, the people may decide five was already too much.
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