Doublespeak: Ruto preaches water abroad and gulps wine back home

President William Ruto delivered a passionate speech at the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. He spoke about justice, fairness, and the need for change in Africa and globally. But when you compare his words to what his government is doing in Kenya, many contradictions emerge.

At the UN, Ruto said the conflict in Sudan should be solved through dialogue, not war. He urged respect for Sudan’s unity and rejected outside interference.

“Kenya is equally deeply troubled by the worsening humanitarian situation in Sudan, where innocent citizens are caught in the crossfire of a needless war. We fully endorse the Quad comprising Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States in affirming that there cannot be a military solution and that only political dialogue offers a viable path forward,” President Ruto implored the global audience.

The President’s own actions back home in Kenya, however, tell a different story.

Ruto’s government has supported the RSF, a paramilitary group accused of war crimes against civilians, including rape. On February 18, 2025, Kenya hosted an RSF summit in Nairobi, where the RSF declared the formation of a parallel government. This move clearly undermines the African Union peace efforts.

The President had earlier met RSF leader Gen Mohamed “Hemedti” Dagalo at State House on January 3, 2023. This openly favours one fighting faction and goes against Ruto’s call for unity and peaceful dialogue.

Ruto also expressed concern over the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. He called for a ceasefire, respect for international law, and the release of hostages.

“The protection of civilians and respect for humanitarian law cannot be applied selectively. We cannot condemn suffering in one place and turn a blind eye in another. Kenya is gravely concerned by the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and by the immense suffering of civilians caught in the devastation of disproportionate military operations.” said Ruto.

However, in Kenya, the government’s treatment of young protesters has been harsh and violent. Since June 2024, mainly Gen Z Kenyans have protested against high taxes, inflation, and poor governance. The initial protests triggered by the Finance Bill in June 2024 saw police use live bullets, killing about 60 people and injuring hundreds.

The police reacted to the peaceful protests with violence, lobbing tear gas and firing live bullets on demonstrators in Nairobi, Kisumu, and Mombasa. According to Amnesty International and the Kenya Commission on Human Rights, over 400 youth were injured.

Terrorism

Among those who died include well-known activist Albert Ojwang, who died under police custody in June 2025. Others are Rex Masai, Erickson Mutisya, and Caroline Shiramba who died during the protests in 2024. The National Human Rights Commission documented 19 deaths and over 500 injuries during further protests in July linked with the Saba Saba peaceful demonstration.

Despite the brutality, Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen dismissed accusations of excessive force, calling the protests “terrorism disguised as dissent.”

At a press conference on June 26, 2025 Murkomen condemned the protests, describing them as a “deliberate, coordinated, funded and politically instigated operation” masquerading as dissent, with the goal of instigating anarchy and regime change. This contrasts with Ruto’s human rights rhetoric at the UN.

At the UN, Ruto called out the IMF and World Bank for treating Africa unfairly. He argued these institutions favour wealthy countries with large loans on easy terms, while Africa gets small loans burdened with high interest and stringent conditions.

“During the IMF’s recent allocation of special drawing rights, 64 per cent went to wealthy nations. With little need for liquidity support, they didn’t need the money anyway, but they got 64 per cent while the poorer countries received just 2.4 per cent,” Ruto told the world.

Yet Kenya continues to rely heavily on IMF loans. A day after his UN speech, IMF officials arrived in Nairobi to discuss a new support programme. The previous three-year $3.6 billion loan agreement expired in April 2025.

Since Ruto took office in September 2022, Kenya’s public debt has ballooned from about $70 billion to over $83 billion by mid-2025. Kenya’s increasing dependence on external borrowing and delayed reforms sharply contradicts Ruto’s calls for financial independence in Africa.

Speaking to world leaders, Ruto praised Kenya’s leadership of the UN-backed Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti. 

“The presidential palace, once under siege from gangs, is today restored as the seat of government. Cases of kidnapping and extortion have reduced sharply. The airport and the seaport once surrounded by gangs are now abuzz with normal operations. Which begs the question, if so much could be achieved with limited resources and stretched personnel within just 15 months, what more could have been accomplished if the United Nations fraternity had truly acted together in solidarity with the people of Haiti?”

Back home in Kenya, President Ruto’s approach to dealing with perceived dissent in kidnapping has been questioned. Since mid-2024, Kenya has witnessed a sharp rise in abductions and kidnappings linked to government actions against critics.

Human Rights groups report that more than 80 people, mainly young activists critical of President Ruto’s administration, have been abducted, with dozens still missing. 

Albert Muteti, a well-known activist, was taken outside a Nairobi shop by men, one wearing a police uniform, before disappearing. Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, accuse the police of involvement in these kidnappings.

While he spoke glowingly about the success of the mission in Haiti, the insecurity in Kenya has reached alarming levels. Of late, gangs of thieves have been terrorising Kenyans in broad daylight in Nairobi city centre and other parts of the country.

Two weeks ago, Nairobi Regional Police Commander George Sedah confirmed that the police had started rounding up members of the gangs that have been terrorising city dwellers. “It is under control, so far we have arrested 80 suspects who are under interrogation.”

This followed public outrage after videos exposed the gangs carrying human waste , syringe needles, knives and rungus harassing, beating and stealing from Kenyans in broad daylight. The same case was the situation in Malindi.

Even as Ruto called for more troops to be deployed to Haiti, the recruitment of 10,000 police officers needed to boost security across the country has been put off several times due to lack of budgetary allocation. Kenya’s police-to-civilian ratio is below internationally accepted standards, with reports indicating a ratio of about 1:512 by May 2025, far below a widely cited benchmark of 1 officer per 400 civilians.

Kenya’s reality

As he spoke about the need to fete and honour officers who lost their lives in the Haiti mission, President Ruto was so insensitive that he broke the news of a police officer’s death to a global audience, even before the family had been alerted.

The news of the death of Benedict Kabiru, a Kenyan police officer who went missing in an ambush attack in Haiti back in March was broken to them by the President five months later in a televised address 11,850 kilometres away, in New York. 

Ruto spoke of Kenya’s growth in renewable energy. Kenya leads East Africa in geothermal and solar power capacity.

Meanwhile, back home, the government cancelled a Sh337 billion Grand Falls Dam project that was to bridge the clean energy deficit Kenya has, and awarded the contract to a new company associated with powerful figures in the government. Starting a new project would at best, take three years of feasibility studies.

A closer look at President Ruto’s speech at the UN shows contradictions between his ideals and Kenya’s reality. Supporting a warring faction in Sudan, crushing youth protests, deepening IMF debt dependence begs the question: why can’t the President practise what he preaches?