The big harambee: How a nation financing one man's quest for power

President Ruto dons KDF Jungle uniform as he presides over KDF Day at Moi Baracks in Eldoret on October 14, 2025. [PCS]

Politics has always had an intimate relationship with wealth. From the courts of medieval Europe to oligarchies of modern states, power and money tend to travel together, reinforcing one another in a mutually sustaining cycle.

But democratic societies attempt to regulate this relationship through institutions, transparency, and accountability. Without these restraints, political authority easily mutates into a private enterprise, where the state becomes less a public trust and more a vehicle for personal accumulation.