For the nine months he has been in office, President William Ruto has established himself as an articulate strong voice and probing mind on the international stage.

He speaks his mind openly with courage and candour which most of his timid colleagues from the African continent dare not comment.

Even his fiercest of critics who rarely have anything positive to say about him and even have a bone to pick with him regarding his numerous foreign trips agree that Ruto’s speeches when out of the country are compelling the wielders of power within the family of nations to look at Kenya afresh outside the binoculars of athletics, corruption, electoral feuds, road carnage and cultism.

On subjects ranging from disparities and discrimination in international monntary lending structure by the Bretton Woods institutions, trade imbalances in favour of the Global North to climate change, travel, education, science and technology Ruto’s speeches have been spot-on, attracting kudos from far and wide and setting arguments that he is filling the void left by some of his staight-shooting predecessors on the African continent such as Julius Nyerere, Muammar Gaddafi, John Magufuli (all deceased) and current Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

However, it would seem handlers of the President have either forgotten or not bothered to convince him that he can aptly use his newly acquired space and celebrity status to market the Swahili language as well as tourism and democracy beyond the Kenyan frontiers.

I was among the Kenyans who were disappointed that during his trip to the Comoros, Democratic Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Congo (Brazzaville) last week – countries where Swahili is fairly spoken – our President was keen to plough page after page of his speeches to communicate in English through a translator to purely French-Speaking Ruto audiences whom he could have safely talked to in Swahili, especially so given the fact that the World was marking the UNESCO Swahili Day when Ruto was in DRC.

It would have made a lot of sense were Ruto’s speeches delivered in Swahili, even through an interpreter. If anything, can Ruto not set precedence that he too can have his speeches translated from Swahili. What will it cost the Presidency to hire a bunch of linguists who can translate speeches of the Kenyan leader. On many occasions, President Museveni has floated the idea of having the East African Community (EAC) to officially embrace Swahili as its language of communication. Museveni has not been alone.

Notably, Nigerian Nobel Prize winner for Literature Wole Soyinka has for times without number that Africa – through the African Union – should take Swahili as its official language in a move to help better understanding, communication, trade and cultural cohesion among its people.

For decades, Soyinka has been a lone crusader towards that noble objective until Museveni vigorously joined the conversation. Another voice to have previously championed Swahili as a potential continental language of communication was the late President of Mozambique Samora Machel who went ahead to demonstrate his seriousness by addressing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) – the precursor to AU – in that language.

Noticeably though, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and his Mozambican President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi have on occasions opted to speak in Swahili when they are in regional functions outside their home countries. That is very encouraging.

I find Museveni’s line of thought very convincing. It needs support from every leader and citizen in the EAC bloc. However, for purposes of Kenya’s image and bragging rights, I submit that Ruto should take the gauntlet and drive this agenda. Kenya stands to benefit