Dr Alfred Makotsi, PhD (IR & Diplomacy), Mandela Washington Fellow. The party’s candidate secured only 5,450 votes against the winner’s 35,440. Yet the emerging response- inviting delegations of leaders, professionals and community representatives to State House- risks deepening, rather than reversing, the government’s political difficulties.
State House cannot accommodate every Kenyan.
Those who receive invitations are usually political leaders, local elites and selected representatives.
They return home carrying elevated expectations, often after speeches filled with assurances of development and access to government.
When those expectations are not met, disappointment spreads beyond the delegates to the communities they claimed to represent.
What was intended as political outreach then becomes another source of resentment.
More importantly, State House meetings cannot substitute for visible delivery.
They cannot answer complaints about stalled roads, incomplete projects, unemployment, high living costs or promises that communities believe have been forgotten.
Kenyans do not need photographs of delegations shaking hands in Nairobi; they need evidence that government is working where they live.
The President must also be cautious about making fresh promises during these meetings.
Every pledge creates a political debt.
If projects announced today remain unfulfilled by 2027, the opposition will use the President’s own words as evidence of another broken commitment.
Timing presents another problem.
In Kenya, serious election mobilisation traditionally intensifies about a year before voting. Consequently, many invitees will interpret these meetings not as genuine development consultations, but as campaign events financed by the prestige of the presidency.
That perception weakens their credibility and blurs the line between governance and electioneering.
Ruto must wake up and smell the coffee. His political rise was built on a powerful narrative, disciplined organisation and sustained engagement at the grassroots.
In 2022, the “hustler” message connected because it spoke directly to ordinary citizens’ frustrations and aspirations.
To recover politically, he must leave the State House bubble, rebuild trust from the ground up and deliver measurable results.
A listening tour backed by completed projects would achieve far more than a procession of selected delegations.
Elections are won among citizens, not inside ceremonial halls.
Dr Alfred Makotsi, PhD (IR & Diplomacy), Mandela Washington Fellow 2025, IGAD Leadership Academy Fellow 2025, PLGP – FES Kenya Fellow 2017, spoke to the Star.
