Ruto's New Year message raises fresh hope amid unmet promises

President William Ruto during the Pamoja Concert at Eldoret Sports Club on December 31, 2025. [PCS]

President William Ruto’s New Year’s speech delivered at the Eldoret State lodge on Wednesday has attracted both criticism and applause from pundits and other Kenyans across the political divide although many burning challenges like the Grade 10 admission uproar were not addressed.

His thirty-minute-long raised hope for the country but was also filled with guarded optimism on what the New Year holds in store for them. The President largely dwelt on his pet projects like affordable housing and infrastructure expansion, leaving some key challenges Kenyans will face in 2026.

As the country enters the new year, serious challenges are still bedevilling the education, health, security and governance sectors among others that need urgent attention.

He also dwelt on the danger posed  to the health of the country’s youth by alcoholism and drug abuse, issues that past leaders including Presidents Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki, Uhuru Kenya and his former deputy Rigathi Gachagua also grappled with mixed success.

To combat alcohol and drug abuse, which Ruto said had afflicted five million Kenyans, he announced the establishment of a strengthened anti-narcotics unit within the Directorate of Criminal Investigations with operational capacity comparable to the anti-terrorism police unit.

“The unit will operate as a permanent multi-agency formation, working closely with the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the National Intelligence Service, border management agencies, county governments, and international partners,” said Ruto.

To support this expansion, the unit’s strength will be boosted from the current 200 to 700 officers through new recruitment and redeployment, all trained and equipped for national operations against high-level traffickers, financiers, and organised criminal networks.

 Apart from the alcohol and drug abuse menace, the President’s speech also touched on issues related to poverty and employment, successes in the implementation of the Social Health Authority medical cover, and the unveiling of the National Infrastructure Fund as a cornerstone of the country’s deliberate march toward a first-world economy.

It has, however, elicited varied reaction from the professionals, with some applauding him for giving the nation hope when it so desperately needs it and taking charge of government for the last two years, whereas the other half criticised President Ruto over his failure to address critical challenges in the education and health sectors as well as not firmly tackling corruption.

 President Ruto is convinced that through a new financing framework, the country will be transformed through implementation of projects such as the Talanta Sports Complex, the Bomas International Convention Centre, major highways, and the launch of the Naivasha–Narok–Kisumu–Malaba Standard Gauge Railway.

Equally, he promised a launch of the Galana-Kulalu Dam, and several others as part of the expansion of  irrigation infrastructure across the country, with the ultimate objective of ensuring 2.5 million acres of land under irrigation. 

Gitile Naituli, a professor of management and leadership at Multimedia University of Kenya, however says the speech by the Head of State focused on grandiose façade but not the issues that matter to Kenyans such as addressing the education concerns, how to fight corruption as well as addressing the high cost of living.

“Kenyans are more focused on how to put money in their pockets, they are more concerned on how the government should address the over borrowing, lower the high cost of living and most importantly how the Kenya Kwanza administration seeks to address the issues of school fees as they embark on taking their children back to school,” said Naituli.

Noting that the Kenya Kwanza administration was anchored on the bottom up economic agenda, the President ought to have addressed how his administration was doing to implement its promises to the ordinary Kenyans and not rhetoric’s on the journey to Singapore.

“We can’t attain the Singapore dream if we do not have discipline on the management of public affairs and if we do not embrace meritocracy where Kenyans are employed not based by who they know but based on their knowledge and skills 

He added ‘Kenyans were eager to hear the President’s strategy to rationalise taxes so that Kenyans can have disposable income for them to meet their daily ends.”

On his part, Wellington Nyabuto said while President Ruto inspired hope to Kenyans, he needed to give deadlines on when his administration would deliver the pledges he made to Kenyans given that the country will be going into an election next year.

“The President continued in his style of politics to give more promises to Kenyans at a time when the trust deficit exists between him and the electorate, he needed to outline his scorecard on pledges, indicate when his administration intends to complete the projects as opposed to announcing more pledges like the proposed construction of a modern, world-class airport at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and construction of the Naivasha-Narok-Bomet-Nyamira-Kisumu-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway.”

But Bosco Mutegi, a political analyst, praised Ruto’s speech saying it was full of hope to Kenyans and that he was in charge of the country.

Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit, the head of the Anglican Church of Kenya opposed to the introduction of the Infrastructure Fund and warned that the extra-constitutional avenues of creating funds and then securitising citizens taxes can actually lead to disaster a few years down the line.