Kagwanja berates Ruto’s advisors over controversial policies
By Luke Oluoch, December 17, 2025Law professor and governance expert Peter Kagwana has launched a scathing attack on President William Ruto’s governance, accusing his advisory council of complicity in failing to steer the country in the right direction.
In an interview with a local TV station on Wednesday, December 17, 2025, Kagwanja alluded to Ruto’s foreign policy as a case in point.
The university don denounced the regime for its failure to articulate its stand and maintain a solid policy, making a wide departure from Uhuru Kenyatta’s time, who explicitly stated its domestic, regional, and global policy.
Foreign policy departure
“During Uhuru’s tenure in 2023, in his inauguration, he read a long speech in which he outlined his policy and where he sought to take the country. It was so clear that wherever he veered, you could notice it,” he said.
“This regime has veered off from the good culture we had as Kenyans. The problem with the current administration also lies in other policies as well. We have now veered off from the hustler nation and bottom-up,” he posited.
“We are now in the glass tops and not the grassroots, with no one taking time or having a paper to explain,” he stated.
According to Kagwanja, the fundamental principles governing many government policies have remained unexplained, raising the question of what the responsibility of the presidential advisory team is.
“There is no paper to explain it, yet the presidency is packed with special advisers, most of whom are in their 20s, who cannot burn the midnight oil and come out with such guiding policies. It is like having educated illiterates in the advisory,” he stated.
Plummeting standards
Kagwanja’s remarks come amid the heightened criticism of the regime’s handling of the foreign affairs docket.
In a most recent onslaught, Nyamira Senator Okongo Omogeni similarly criticised plummeting standards of Kenya’s foreign standing under Ruto.
The senator bemoaned a sense of high-handedness among a section of high government officials, citing it as a factor in the blustering approach to foreign relations.
“Kenya’s foreign policy is on a free fall. We have lost our standing as an island of peace within a perilous neighborhood. What we have is a one-man show in President Ruto, who does not pay attention to any advice of professionals,” he stated.