Ruto’s Russian roulette with government fuels decline in popularity.

It is frustrating watching explosive media interviews in which the interviewers are so in love with their own voices that they consistently interrupt the interviewee whose words you have tuned in to consume by the soundbite.

This was the feeling, first, when President William Ruto appeared in a media interview with several news outlets live from Sagana State Lodge on the night of March 31 and when fired Public Service CS Justin Muturi was interviewed on a TV station four days later, on April 4.

In each case, the interviewing panellists initially appeared intent on haranguing their guest with repetitive questions that appeared to counter to the media houses’ desire to get exclusive soundbites from their powerful guests.

Luckily, in both cases, President Ruto and former CS Muturi still were able to court controversy with their words during the interviews.

Thankfully, the third interview – this time featuring impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, on Monday night this week, at a different media house – was much better moderated and easier to watch.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: the sort of revelations made by both Muturi and Gachagua would lead to the fall of governments in many civilisations.

That there was not an ounce of outrage following them is testament to how timid and indifferent the Kenyan population is. Many governments in the world have fallen over words far less incendiary.

And even if both Muturi and Gachagua uttered falsehoods in their interviews, the office that Ruto holds is the most important and most crucial in the nation, requiring the holder to be ‘Caesar’s wife’, beyond reproach. It cannot afford such accusations to begin with.

Unfortunately, Ruto doesn’t help himself with his actions. On more than one occasion, he has gladly hosted Sudanese militia leader General Dagalo ‘Hemedti’, and allowed the latter’s Sudanese RSF to open an operational headquarters in the heart of Nairobi.

When Muturi then proceeds to accuse him of having had shadowy Russian oligarchs on standby at Dubai Airport waiting for the CS to sign strange multi-billion-shilling deals, it makes the story quite plausible.

In many quarters, both Muturi and Gachagua have been dismissed as two cases of sour grapes, speaking only after losing favour within government.

The former AG has especially been cited for keeping a studious silence in government, until his son fell victim to the prevalent abductions last year.

To be fair, there is really no harm in the former CS only finding his voice when impunity hit too close home. It is in fact a common philosophy in politics, that people in high political places feed the impunity dragon, believing it will feast on everyone else, but not their own.

But the dragon, as we now know, doesn’t have a selective appetite, and is an equal opportunity eater. The former DP and the former CS are just the latest in a growing list of former government functionaries now poking legitimacy holes in a regime they were happy to serve until recently.

But Ruto’s responses to these long-standing crises of confidence almost always paint a picture of a man grappling in the dark, unaware of how to steady the ship and overcome the loss of support in certain regions of the country.

Take the cooperation framework agreed with opposition party ODM, for instance. At face value, it was meant to afford the President and the government wide support in other areas of the country, aside from regions that voted for him in 2022, as well as bring him a semblance of political stability.

But in ‘consummating’ the new political relationships, via new appointments of Principal Secretaries, he not only created seven new state departments, but not many of the appointments inspired any feeling of freshness.

To add insult to injury, in finally relieving Muturi of his Cabinet responsibilities, the President tapped a sitting legislator, Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku, to replace him.

This sustained a pattern whereby the Ruto administration has consistently nominated elected legislators into the Cabinet, creating vacancies in their seats, and impending by-elections that are totally unnecessary.

In a country of millions of professionals and top-notch technocrats, you would imagine the President would be spoilt for choice in attempting to cobble together a competent Cabinet.

Instead, with each crisis, he plays typical Russian roulette, recycling previously fired individuals or appointing sitting legislators, a clear indication of Ruto’s love for politicians, rather than real experts, to run his government.

All indications are that the President and many elected leaders are back on SUV sunroofs campaigning ahead of the 2027 election. They are at least two years too early, but these are the times we live in. If Ruto has seen turbulent governance times during the past half of his term, there is no chance that anything much will change in the remaining months.

Which is my way of saying that what the President himself has termed “potea pata”, the governance method of confusion and stagnation, might continue to be a feature of this latter part of his first term. It may get even worse for the ruling coalition.

As elections draw closer, many of its supporters in regions that have slowly deserted it, will queue at the exit door, seeking to play it safe to guarantee their election and re-election.

Truth be said, the more revelations similar to Muturi’s and Gachagua’s emerge, the more even cooperation partners in ODM will become hard pressed to explain to their people why they need to continue with the current framework.

To compound these problems, those departing Ruto’s government seem to have time on their hands, so they are not averse to daily or weekly TV interviews. Whatever the truth around their claims, the damage done is massive, especially as the President and his government have chosen silence as their modus operandi, in the face of these grave allegations.

At any rate, I do not even think that denying these allegations will serve to advance Ruto in his quest for a second term. The better reply would be action. In the short time left before the entire country buries itself in another long campaign, the President needs to make revolutionary moves to endear himself to the people.

These include a competent Cabinet, an increased pro-people agenda and possibly a more honest engagement with the masses.

But as it is, moving people here and there, making appointments that have no impact, and meeting militia leaders at State House only serve to enrich the narratives being run by people like Gachagua.

Soon, there will be no comeback window, if the regime doesn’t make conscious efforts to stop the Russian roulette and actually govern properly!