Ruto must look beyond dishonest handlers likely to bring him down

President Ruto leads the Nation in marking the 2026 Labour Day celebrations in Vihiga County, accompanied by NA Speaker Moses Wetangula, PCS Musalia Mudavadi, and COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli. [PCS]

Mudavadi, Wetang’ula not telling Ruto the truth about Western region politics 

Disinformation is the hallmark of political leadership in Western Kenya. These leaders are averse to speaking the truth because it doesn’t serve their selfish interests.

For the first time in Kenya’s history, Labour Day celebrations were held outside Nairobi at Chavakali High School in Vihiga County, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi’s backyard. This was more by design than happenstance. 

It was a political ruse to hoodwink the people of Western Kenya into believing the government values them, that their supposed kingpins sit at the decision-making table, and that they should therefore re-elect the incumbent to keep receiving goodies that are their right anyway.

The celebrations were promptly hijacked by politicians who addressed anything and everything except the concerns of workers. COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli forgot the essence of the day entirely and led the “Tutam” chorus instead. Labour Day became a campaign rally; a fitting metaphor for how Western Kenya’s political elite have turned every public forum into a vessel for self-preservation.

Every citizen has the right to make their own political decisions, which is why proponents of both ‘Wantam’ and ‘Tutam’ are within constitutional bounds. But their positions must ultimately be subjected to a test, one set for August 10, 2027. Whoever scores highly wins.

Unfortunately, the Tutam camp appears committed to exam malpractice long before the examination date, and disinformation is their preferred tool. By asserting that “every Luhya has been employed by the government”, Atwoli not only insulted the intelligence of the people of Western Kenya, but he also trivialised a deepening crisis. 

University graduates in the region are riding boda bodas for a living. Youth unemployment has fuelled the mushrooming of criminal gangs, and Vihiga County, the very county that hosted those Labour Day celebrations, leads in this grim statistic. This symbolism is as cruel as it is ironic.

People in western Kenya are beginning to question the value of their political support. These reckonings trouble those perched high on the leadership ladder, whose relevance depends on delivering votes they can no longer guarantee. Rather than confront this reality, they reach for the familiar instrument of disinformation. 

News flash: it won’t work. People today act from a point of information. Gone are the days when communities surrendered their right to independent thought to elected leaders. Leaders no longer speak for the people. They speak for themselves, and the people know it.

The tragedy is not only that they are selfish. They are cowards as well. They are afraid to admit their inability to bring the region into the government fold, and they would sooner lie to the President than confess their diminishing influence. In doing so, they believe they are helping him. They are, in fact, hurting his chances of re-election in 2027. You cannot cover a suppurating wound with a bandage and expect recovery.

Someone must bell the cat. Someone must summon the courage to tell the king he is naked. But with the current orchestra of praise singers that leech on the presidential entourage, rudderless, self-seeking opportunists all, that reckoning will not be long in coming.

The Sifuna factor in Western Kenya politics is meanwhile quietly doing what sustained neglect always eventually does: rendering Mudavadi and Wetang’ula, the de facto Luhya heavyweights, increasingly irrelevant. They no longer command the numbers they once effortlessly did before the cold reality of unmet and reckless promises made in 2022 exposed the depth of their deceit. 

The people are angry and hungry. Their leaders respond by doubling down on Ruto’s re-election campaign. If they must know, the scales of the Stockholm Syndrome that have held this region captive for many decades are finally falling away.

Western Kenya is not a vote bloc to be paraded at a high school, applauded with statistics about government employment and then forgotten until the next election cycle. If Ruto is serious about securing a second term, he would do well to look beyond the handlers who keep telling him what he wants to hear and reckon honestly with what the region is actually saying.