Events of this week suggest the William Ruto administration is in panic and has lost the information war, going by the communications coming from various regime quarters.
There is every evidence to suggest that the leadership is at sixes and sevens, not sure what to do to counter the narrative being shaped on social media.
When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs authors the kind of statement they released with the intention of reassuring the international community of the country’s stability in the wake of online messages to foreign governments by targeting the Dutch Royal family that is reportedly meant to visit Kenya speaks volumes about the lack of direction in government policy.
The Kenya Kwanza does not seem to have a grip of affairs and neither does it have any solid foreign policy, if this is anything to measure its policy solidity.
This quick-sand ideology of managing public affairs on the global stage becomes more manifest, and worryingly so, when interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen purports to direct that social media companies set up base in Kenya. One wonders who gives Murkomen the authority or jurisdiction to make such directives from Nairobi when the conglomerates are domiciled in the United States.
The good CS is probably delusional about how much power he has and may still be in slumber not to realize that Washington is set to welcome a new Sheriff who has made it clear that he would have nothing with busy-bodies trying to impose a false sense of importance to the White House’s quest to control global affairs. The outrageous non-NATO ally designation that Ruto left Washington with in May will be among the first Donald Trump will trash on Day One so Ruto and ilk need to wake up from the hangover that US will tolerate the bad manners they got away with while Meg Whitman was representing the American interests in Nairobi.
It could never be clearer that the government is unable to sustain the information war and the fact that bad governance, abductions, general breakdown of the rule of law and runaway corruption have been the signature performance indicators of this regime does not help matters.
This best exemplifies why William Ruto is having sleepless nights and whereas his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta has issues of his own with the Gen Zs, his calls for the movement’s crusaders to be fearless will spark a new wave of pressure against Ruto. How long this government will hold and whether or not it will get to 2027 remains to be seen but the signs of the times are not pretty for UDA.
Only time will tell.