Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

The US-based Ford Foundation has refuted claims by President William Ruto that it was sponsoring the ongoing anti-government protests.

President Ruto on Monday accused the Ford Foundation of funding the organisers of the protests to cause mayhem in the country.

“Those who are sponsoring the violence, we know them, and I want to call out those who are behind the anarchy in Kenya. Shame on them!” Ruto told a meeting at Kuresoi South, Nakuru county.

“The Foundation has been giving money to sponsor violence, how are they going to benefit?” Posed Ruto.

He added; “If they are going to sponsor violence in Kenya, if they are going to sponsor anarchy, we are going to call them out and we are going to tell them that they either style up or they leave.”

Last week in Kajiado county, Ruto spoke of “foreigners planning things for Kenyans” that “Kenya is a democratic country. This is our country and we shall not leave.”

Gen-Z Kenyans have been holding anti-government demonstrations, to protest taxes imposed by the government which have left several people dead and properties destroyed.

“The young people in Kenya are not available to cause violence and anarchy in their own country. If they (Ford Foundation) are not interested in democracy in Kenya, they should either style up or ship out,” Ruto told another rally.

Denied involvement

But in response, the Ford Foundation denied any involvement in the funding of the protests as alleged by the Kenyan Head of state.

“We do not fund or sponsor the recent protests against the finance bill,” said the Foundation in a statement.

The president’s remarks in Nakuru illustrates the fragile nature of relations between the government and the orgaisation over the years.

In February this year, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker (pictured) met Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei where they discussed the working relations between Nairobi and the organisation.

In its statement, the foundation maintained that it has over the years distributed grants to civil and rights groups in the country and maintained a “strictly non-partisan policy for all of our grant making”.