Calls of ‘Traitor! Traitor!’ Ring Out Against Cooperating ‘Osama’ as Ruto is Hosted on Space X
Over 3.6 million people tuned into William Ruto’s #EngageThePresident on Space X, perhaps one of the biggest gatherings in the world on that forum so far. By taking to X, formerly know as Twitter, President Ruto had, in characteristic style, taking the battle to the enemy – fighting them in their own turf and scoring victories.
But there were challenges as the X servers seemed to be overloaded and there were frequent disconnections, which led to fears the President’s team may have been restricting participation. But these fears may have been unfounded as Ruto was himself disconnected occasionally.
There had been other fears in government that the Gen Z crowd would sabotage the event by not joining but holding their own, but it seemed to take off as planned, with some of the outspoken Gen Z members joining the discussions.
Some of the questions asked the President were incredibly frank
Ruto started with reminding his audience that some time in 2020 he had said that the conversation would move away from personalities, away from tribe and personalities, and indeed it had, even if he was having that conversation on X. “I am happy that I am here so that I can do the most important thing that I have been accused of not doing…listening.”
Online, a Gen Z member, Alinoor Mohammed claimed that one of the President’s co-0hosts, Osama, had been one of the people who had faulted the original Gen Z leader, Khalif Kairo,. accusing him of having been bought, “The painful thing ni Osama alikua among the people calling out Kairo ati amelippwa, alafu leo siku ikifijka tunapata yeye ndo cohost wa Space ya mwenye alikuia akipiga vita.” @OsamaOtero was accused of being a traitor for hosting Ruto on X while his comrade, Rex, who was hot by a policeman along Moi Avenue during the protests, was being buried today. There were calls that he should be unfollowed on X as a result of betraying the cause of Gen Z.
Although most of the issues were raised by the Speakers who were allowed to speak, it appeared most of those allowed to speak were either known to the co-hosts or had links with them, leading to fears it may have been rigged from the start.
Some of the issues not addressed by Ruto included ethnic marginalization, tribalism and nepotism, which have been Ruto’s biggest shortcomings as his Kalenjin ethnic group has gobbled up most of the available jobs ion the public service. Due to this, it is doubtful if he’ll follow up on his directive to fold 47 parastatals in an effort ot cut costs.
The other matter that Ruto evaded with characteristic verbosity was that of the number of ministries constituencies and counties. When cornered, he kept referring to vague realities that one must consider, leading to doubts on his commitment to clean up his government by getting rid of the dead weight and corrupt officials.
The issue of suffering minorities was also not addressed, as was that of corruption in the counties.
But it was amusing to see the profiles of some of the people targeted for attack, like Roads CS Kipchumba Murkomen, who was accused of incompetence and ostentatious consumption. The sure effect of Ruto’s participation on X is that his government officials will take a keener interest in the forum, given that the revolution that never took off was planned ot it.
President William Ruto must have left beaming at his performance but echoes of the distrust, that he di not have the public trust for whatever he had said on the forum reverberated through the Internet.