Cut Ruto some slack, he became Kenya's CEO during hard times

President William Ruto arrives at Tambacha Primary School, Kegogi, in Kisi County on December 8, 2021. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

Picture this: You have just secured a job as the CEO of a blue chip company. Full of new ideas on how to take the company to the next level, you report early for your first day at work.

Then it hits you. The company you imagined you were taking over and the company in the handing-over report are completely different.

For starters, the company you are taking over is in the red - heavily indebted, with auctioneers hovering just outside your office door.

Underneath the rich red carpet, you discover layers of dust, all carefully swept and hidden over the years.

It does not end there - a walk around the company offices brings you face to face with demotivated workers. As far as they are concerned, you are the silver bullet that came to solve all of their problems overnight.

Yes, you are qualified for the CEO's job; yes, you got the job on merit. Yes, you are up to the task of turning around the fortunes of the company.

But the burden of expectations from your workers and shareholders weighs heavily on you. At the end of the day, one question lingers in your mind - was this just a bad time to be CEO?

This is the scenario that Bill - Kenya's fifth President - is facing in the first six months in office (for those who do not know, the short form for William is Bill).

Granted, Bill is a suave politician and a scholar with a PhD to boot. Granted, Bill has proven himself - both in local and international forums - that he is on top of things; as good a CEO as there ever was.

But, as fate would have it, Bill became Kenya's new CEO during some of the most trying times in the country's history. The circumstances of his presidency would make even the best of CEOs throw their hands up in despair.

President William Ruto during a past event at State House, Nairobi. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

For starters, Bill took up the CEO job in the middle of one of the worst droughts in the country's history. After five seasons of poor rainfall, the number of mouths that Bill was expected to feed rose from 3.5 million to 4.4 million.

By the time Bill was sworn in, Russians were raining bombs on Ukraine, cutting off vital global food and fuel supply lines.

The shockwaves of the roaring tanks and exploding bombs reverberated across the world, and Bill suddenly found himself scratching his head on where to buy food and fuel to power Eastern Africa's largest economy.

Suddenly the president had bigger bills to pay while still servicing multi-trillion debts whose demand notes were overflowing in his in-tray. Things did not get any better with the plummeting value of the Kenyan shilling which pushed the prices of basic commodities past the roof top.

Increased demand for dollars outstripped supply as Kenya's weekly foreign exchange reserves that at one point, were only enough to pay a few months of imports.

Like Britain's Winston Churchill who took the helm amidst a blistering World War II, Bill was taking over a country in the middle of a global economic crisis.

Taking a cue from the economic hard times, fellows that gave Bill a run for his money in the race for CEO's position started claiming that that they would have made better CEOs.

It did not help matters when the new CEO had to bite the bullet and make a number of painful decisions-from cancelling tax waivers to ending a number of subsidies.

Like US Franklin Roosevelt taking over a battered economy at the height of a ravaging economic depression, Bill knew exactly where to place his bet: economic reforms and agriculture.

It is now six months after Dr Ruto took up the CEO job, and some of his workers still expect him to be a miracle worker of some sort-turning water to wine and stones to bread on his first sitting at the head of the dinner table.

Kenya might have to cut its new CEO some slack: He is a good CEO trying his best to run the ship in the middle of hard times.