How Ruto fought the reforms that gave him its biggest beneficiary

President William Ruto during the 3rd National Executive Retreat at KCB leadership centre on June 19, 2025. [Jonah Onyango,Standard] During the campaigns to drum up support for the 2010 Constitution, William Ruto, then a Cabinet minister, rejected the draft. While serving as Agriculture minister, Ruto teamed up with the church to launch a countywide campaign leading the No campaign, but two years later, the reforms he rejected made him the first occupant of the office of the Deputy President. And the office came with protection from the whims of the president. Unlike those before him, his boss could not dismiss him at will. This is why even after the bromance between Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta soured, the best the Head of State could do was sulk and rant. Ten years after his unsuccessful referendum campaigns, Ruto was sworn in as the fifth President of Kenya and second under the new Constitution on September 13, 2022. The country watched and hoped as he swore at the Kasarani Stadium how he would protect the Constitution he had campaigned against nine years earlier. In opposing the draft, Ruto had pointed out that the provision on devolution was "inadequate and a potential source of inequality and marginalisation of sections of Kenyans". He described the devolution structure as flawed. "When we agreed on the pure presidential system of government at Naivasha, we wanted it to go hand in hand with strong regional governments that would counter-balance powers of the presidency," he said. He also reasoned that the provision that an area must have at least 40,000 people to qualify to be a constituency would increase marginalisation. "Constituencies that risk scrapping on the basis of the formula provided by the draft will be between 26 and 46 mainly in sparsely populated areas in North Eastern Province, Upper Eastern and parts of North Rift. We must not pass any constitution that would further marginalise communities that have for decades been complaining of being sidelined," he said in one of his No campaigns. On land, Ruto argued that the provision that gives Parliament mandate to set the minimum and maximum acreage would be a source of friction. Constitutional lawyers and some members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution in Naivasha now accuse Ruto of insincerity. People's Liberation Party leader Martha Karua says Ruto was one of the PSC committee members who later lied to the public. As President, Karua accuses Ruto of defiling the law he vowed to protect. "At some point, the PSC came up with five consensus which included the establishment of the Teachers Service Commission to appease the teachers to support the Constitution while we borrowed heavily from the Medical Act a clause on abortion so to attract the church's vote but even after Ruto agreed with us. I later saw him on television lying that the draft was against life," says Karua. She says Ruto is disobeying the Constitution because "he did not believe in it in the first place". "It is under his regime that the right to property has been violated after massive land grabbing have been reported, right to education has been curtailed and right to education has been ignored." She accuses Parliament of surrendering its authority to the Executive, a move she notes was against the spirit of the Constitution. Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka believes Ruto was conflicted. "Ruto has offended the Constitution that protected his job even after his fallout with Uhuru, he has weaponized State agencies and gone against the document. He is not living as per the spirit of the Constitution," he says. He accuses the President of overseeing massive corruption, usurping the independent bodies and disobeying court orders. Kiroko Ndegwa, a lawyer who has been representing protestors accused of treason, says Ruto "lives in the old era where the word of the Head of State was law". "Were it not for the very document and competent judges who have protected the Constitution, the country would be run by a dictator," he argues.

How Ruto fought the reforms that gave him its biggest beneficiary

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How Ruto fought the reforms that gave him its biggest beneficiary

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