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A year and one week ago, President William Ruto rode to power clothed as a Messiah of the downtrodden in Kenya.

Yet, in only 12 months and seven days, President Ruto’s handlers, courtiers, counsellors and henchmen have fashioned him into a Trojan horse of the oppressor.

The next four years are certainly going to be extremely difficult for the Head of State because, apart from the obvious unavoidable global and local economic challenges and self-inflicted political and social entanglements, the support and confidence Kenyans had in him as of election day on August 9 last year are thinning away. Very fast so. Which is unfortunate.

In ways far more than one, Ruto has been let down by the persons he himself handpicked into office. That is also unfortunate.

Ruto’s first year at the helm has been characterised by too much talk, immaculate dress shows, hubris, chest-thumping and outright insults. That is before you talk about the back-breaking taxes, taxation laws and burdensome debts. Obviously, mbele haiko sawa. That, too, is unfortunate.

To some, it may sound like an overstatement, especially when it is repeated quite often. But it is also not and understatement. Especially when it is factual and close to reality.

Prof Kithure Kindiki—the soft-spoken and humble Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Government Administration—leads the pack of a few State Officers in Ruto’s regime who understand their mandate and strive to faithfully deliver on it.

It might as well have been a blessing in disguise for Kindiki that the President did not pick the former Tharaka Nithi senator as his Principal Assistant.

So because he has been accorded the opportunity to display what stuff he is made of. Time will tell but it does look for him as if, mbele iko sawa.

But let that be a story for another day. Today, it does appear like Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has begun to feel the frustrations of ordinary Kenyans.

Not so long ago, he told his juniors in the Executive to regularly visit the countryside to meet and mingle with the electorate so as to pick out the right information that will drive the formulation and implementation of government policy.

Gachagua was spot-on because most of the ministers and Principal Secretaries spend a considerable percentage of their time in Nairobi shuttling between their offices, hotels and lodgings. They have not been useful to the President. Or the country as a whole.

Last Sunday, Gachagua was at it again. He went hammer and tongs at members of the Executive who treat Kenyans with utter contempt and spite. He condemned the scornful and arrogant language directed by some senior State officers towards the rest of Kenyans.

Again, Gachagua was right. Question is why was this uncouth behaviour allowed to take root for a whole year and for how long will it be allowed to continue?

Only Ruto and Gachagua can answer that. Meanwhile, let them ensure their troops settle down to work. Let them now experience too much of service delivery in the next four years.

Kindiki has already set the template. Whether it is in banditry-ridden northern Kenya, in terror-threatened Lamu or graft-riddled immigration offices at Nyayo House, Kindiki is all over the country every day attending to the woes Kenyans face.

His language is moderate and he gets solutions to those hurdles. One wishes Ruto and Gachagua had more workers like the law Professor.

Kenyans are watching. Ruto and Gachagua have very challenging four years ahead of them. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. They would better get prepared in good time.

— The writer is the Revise Editor, People Daily – [email protected]