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Big Money For Ruto and his Babysitters While Kenyans Suffer And Fight Back

20 mins read
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When big boys with big bellies and big bags need some money to fill their bellies and bags, they know exactly where to get their cash. The Kenya Treasury is their personal bank and the Kenyan taxpayer money and loans are personal assets for them to do whatever they want.

So just like that, the Ruto regime changed the budget to suit their needs. It is the King and his babysitters and they have to get anything they want from the national budget.

In this case, the budget for the government executive prepared by the Treasury was Sh. 810.29M for 2023. That is a joke for the new big spenders who have big families and other interests to take care of. So they increased the executive budget to Sh. 2B for the year. That is an increase of Sh.1.19B. Out of that huge increase in the whole budget, Ruto and his two boys get 75%, while the rest of the whole government gets 25%.

Maybe the pharaoh would run his kingdoms like that where he gets 75% of the money to spend and those who clean his feet got 25%.

William Ruto gets Sh.430M to buy motor vehicles for his office. How many cars can that buy? It could be understandable if Ruto needs to buy a yacht for his office but that is not the case. That money is for Ruto to do whatever he wants and the same applies to Gachagua with Sh. 290M for vehicles. Mudavadi should ask Malala to file a big complaint here because he gets only Sh. 80M for vehicles.

When is Malala staging demos at Ruto’s home to ask him why Mudavadi did not get a couple of hundred millions for vehicles like the other two boys? The scary thing is that this is the amount these guys need for vehicles just for this year, and will have bigger amounts every year for the next five years, which is why they are so desperate to keep their jobs and offices. Those are gold mines for them and the rest of Kenyans can go to hell in a hurry if they don’t like it.

So we are talking about Sh. 2B a year to buy cars and with all the increases on that per year, we are looking at something between Sh. 15B to Sh. 20B just for cars for the UDA leaders in government in 5 years, if they can keep off the Azimio and Kenya Mass Action Movement from stopping their gravy train. Good luck with that.

To make sure that Kenyans got his message clear that his responsibilities are to his friends and loyalists chewing on his toe to make him happy, Ruto appointed 50 of those followers to lucrative CAS jobs after the PSC advertised for 23 CAS jobs. It is impossible to understand how anyone with even the slightest sense of responsibility can appoint 50 people to do the job of 23 people. But don’t ever mix Ruto’s name with any sense of responsibility to Kenya and his Bottom-Up orphans now starving and shocked.

In the meantime, the Ruto regime has no money for counties because they say they are broke. The counties have not even paid salaries to their workers since October 2022 because of a lack of money. That is the same time the government is spending a fortune on all sorts of gimme benefits to Ruto’s friends. Even lunacy has limits and William Ruto is going to realize that pretty soon.

Parliament is supposed to pass new rules on county funding and Kenya parliament effectively does not exist anymore.

Privatization of State Corporations

On Tuesday 22nd March 2023, the Ruto cabinet ruled that Cabinet Secretaries will have the power to privatize parastatal corporations and companies in Kenya like the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC), which has a lot of money and helps farmers, or even the Kenya Railway Corporation which owns hundreds of billions in land properties across the country. There are hundreds where Kenyans have invested trillions of shillings now. Ruto wants to throw all that away for money for himself and his friends who will buy those corporations at throw-away prices.

Privatizing these parastatals where the Kenyan taxpayer have invested more money than they can count will allow them to sell everything to rich Kenyans. Any privatization process was supposed to be the job of parliament so the MPs could protect key parastatals for Kenyans and their resources. That is now gone and you will not hear a single MP complain or raise any concerns on behalf of Kenyans and their own constituents.

The Parliamentarians are now Ruto’s boys and girls and that is all. They dance for him all day and night even after their State House prayers. That is enough work for them. It is a tough job when so many Kenyan citizens are crying for help and Mr. President has nothing to offer to the people and so much to offer to himself and political power brokers.

The damage to the country is going to be immense and terrible. But it is what it is. That is the Kenya we have today.

The same Ruto Cabinet also allowed him to bypass Parliament as well as the Judiciary and negotiate for the failed Sh. 63B Kimwarer and Arror dam projects where Ruto’s buddy Henry Rotich is still in court for massive theft of taxpayer money and loans for the project.

Ruto wants an “alternative resolution” deal with Italy to talk to those who loaned money which was stolen by Rotich and others. In this case, Rotich and others are charged with stealing Sh. 63B meant for the dams which are dead now and could cost another Sh. 60B just to start.

The big issue here for Ruto will be to figure out how the case against Rotich can be dropped by the DPP and more money made available for the thieves to swim in as Kenyans keep paying the loans which could end up being more than Sh. 100bB if they have to start all over again.

But for now here are the lucky ones laughing at Kenyans as Ruto gives them whatever they want.

Brutal Ruto Police

In the meantime, Kenyans are dealing with the aftermath of the mass action against the Ruto regime on Monday 20, 2023 starting with the police killing of a Maseno University student.

This young man, William Mayange was with his fellow students as they marched in the streets demanding better living conditions for Kenyans when he was shot to death by the police firing live bullets at the crowd of students.

The police knew very well they were going to shoot and kill some students but they could care less. They are working for Kenya’s new king and they are above the law and killing a protestor was actually going to be a badge of honour for any police officer as he will be a hero for the Ruto regime.

And then this sad spectacle where a whole bunch or armed police officers descended on a boda boda rider and beat him senseless with their huge rungus. What was this guy’s crime?

And we have these young Kenyans being freed from court after being taken there as criminals by the Ruto government.

After these obvious crimes by the Ruto police, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) grudgingly announced they are investigating the incidents after the Chief of Police Japhet Koome took the whole day whining and complaining about the demonstrations and blaming everybody but the police who were committing violence and crimes as the whole world watched.

These are not the Special Branch police days where the police committed their crimes in darkness and nobody knew anything. Now the police are committing their crimes on live TV and it is everywhere even on Twitter. These are tough days for police crimes against citizens.

Talking about the Special Branch and the secret police force Moi had and which killed many Kenyans plus committed all sorts of crimes against Kenyans fighting for multi-party democracy at the time, it was quite telling that William Ruto has brought in his own Secret Police and Special Branch consisting of heavily armed police force in plain clothes.

That is the most dangerous police force in the world and in Kenya. The Special Branch was abolished and we are supposed to have only uniformed police doing their job. Forget about that now. Ruto has his entire Special Branch in full force.

Here is Ruto’s new Secret Police in action against Kenyans during the Mass Action rallies on Monday March 20, 2023.

These Ruto Secret Police are armed with military-level machine guns. They are out there to kill people and there is no question about that. Never mind under our constitution which Ruto keeps talking about, Secret Police in plain clothes are not allowed in Kenya.

Why did Ruto bring this animal back? He is scared of Kenyans and his idea of bringing them to his order is to kill them and threaten them with death. How better to do that than by having a heavily armed personal police force terrorizing the citizens in the streets?

I know a lot about the Moi Secret Police. They used to visit me a lot of times. But at least they were in suits and had their guns hidden out of sight because they had small guns. The Ruto Secret Police is like an army and they are ready for showtime. Will they frighten Kenyans into submission to Ruto?

That never works. The more you threaten people fighting for basic rights, the more you strengthen them to take the fight to other levels. That is evidence of history everywhere in the world. William Ruto will learn that.

The other reckless thing that happened during the mass action is that as Raila told Kenyans, there was an attempt on his life and we show that the vehicle he was traveling in was shot at and hit in the front glass. Luckily the bullet never got inside. Ruto can’t afford those kinds of reckless games.

If Ruto wants to arrest Raila like his UDA mob wants him to do go ahead. Raila is not hiding. He is out there. Arrest him anytime you want. He has been arrested many times before. If you want the man dead for treason, take him to Kamiti, he has been there before when he was supposed to face the hangman at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. But trying to shoot him in the streets could be a terrible mistake.

Raila also told Kenyans that his Azimio co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka also had an incident threatening his life. Those are very dangerous games. Then of course we know that Winnie Odinga’s car was hit by a bullet. These don’t look like random shootings. These were targeted fires on the people William Ruto thinks are his enemies. Keep this up and you are going to kill one of them. Then what?

Way Forward

Going forward, there are many adjustments to be made by both sides. The Ruto regime got themselves in a fix when they went into paranoia and promised that they will stop the Monday 20, Mass action. The regime tried to convince themselves that Raila and Azimio will back down.

When that did not happen, they went nuts trying to stop the demonstrations by putting cops everywhere starting days before the rally doing nothing. Then they decided to launch full violence against Kenyans on the day of the action and that too never stopped anything.

Ruto and co need to learn their lessons and stop putting themselves in a box. Ruto and his clueless government did more to promote the Azimio Mass Action and the objectives Kenyans are pursuing than they will ever know. They can keep that up at their own risk or learn from it. Kenyans have held peaceful rallies everywhere without a single loss of life or property. Keep it that way and there is no problem. Get the cops and their weapons out of our streets.

On the Azimio side, they have to deal with creating an environment where Kenyans can go on with their lives as usual, even during the mass action rallies. That will help the cause they are pursuing, which is for the betterment of Kenyan lives. They have done it very smartly for more than a month now. Human beings learn every day from everything. That is how we have lived for generations.

Then there is all this talk from Ruto that all Raila wants is a handshake. The first law in politics is that when you shake hands with the devil count your fingers right away after that and chances are there are very few left.

Raila shaking hands with Ruto would be the end of his political relevance to Kenyans. They both are leading political figures in our country today and can talk and agree on what they think is good for the country right now. That is never bad for any country.

In the long run, let’s deal with the issues that affect the lives of Kenyans and forget the handshake talk, please. That is where Kenyans are now as a consequence and reality of their lives as people who just want honest fair life for all. Let everybody live. What is the problem?

Everybody knows this is not a joke. It is our country and we love it all the way. And more. That is what Kenyans are saying from every corner of the country.

The handshake Kenya needs is for those in power to put the money on the table. How much money do we have as a country called Kenya today? Give it to Kenyans in any currency.

How do we intend to use that money to benefit all Kenyans?

How can we use that money which belongs to Kenyans to alleviate immediate problems the citizens face from drought, starvation, high school fees, and general hopelessness which Kenyans try to overcome every day as the resourceful people that they are?

How is the government of Kenya going to help Kenyan kids, farmers, women groups, and students to mention just a few of our great population groups, to grow their ambitions, dreams and run economically and socially beneficial structures to benefit themselves and every Kenyan?

How can we just get food to eat? What a simple and straightforward question for Kenyans to ask.

Those are the “Questions of Today” that Kenyans are asking their government to address right now. I told them I will raise those questions when I talk to my beloved country. I am going to tell them I did exactly that.

Here is the key issue. If Azimio and UDA cannot reach a way forward it is possible we end up with an ungovernable country. That will have its consequences. Kenyans will have to deal with that. They have had it before.

Adongo Ogony is a Kenyan Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada

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