In a country where inspiration stories are famously consumed like a vaccine of a deadly pandemic, to hear that a man could rise through the plains of the Rift Valley, survive bandits and become the president was bound to surely, mesmerise.

For that was the story that Dr William Ruto sold to Kenyans and those who love self made triumph embraced him like faith.

How then his administration, that Majority leader Kimani Ichung'wah on March 28, 2025, defended as "focused amid a storm" was to within two(2) years become synonymous with abductions, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and persecutions...beats many.

Mr Ichung'wah on Kogi's Corner TV said “focus is what drives President Ruto”.

"He is compassionate, strives to do what is right and long lasting rather than going for quick fixes...it is up to you to like or hate him," Mr Ichung'wah said.

How draconian taxes were introduced without a care of ability to shoulder them, how his administration could within two years start running away from allies who had propelled him to power…

Mr Ichung'wah said “we inherited a government that could not pay public service, could not pay school capitation...”

Mr Ichung'wah added that "President Ruto had to tax people to save the country and the confidence he had has paid off and we are off the debt cliff with a savings of more than Sh140 billion that we will use to make this country a big construction site as roads and buildings get built".

How then his administration was to get into a nasty war of words with the very same church's pulpit that had campaigned for him...get insultingly dismissive of the voters opposing livestock vaccination…

How it reached a point that the same nice man who was empathetic to the core could be accused of plotting impeachment of a remorseful and hospitalised deputy…

It is a clash of situations that pundits find hard to reconcile--the inspiring Ruto story and the uninspiring government he leads.

Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya opines that "this happened when the president ceased listening and instead started relying on himself...others becoming afraid to tell him the truth...and the end result is what we are seeing".

It was simply a marvel even to storytellers that Dr Ruto grew up in tattered clothes, in a family where even to date not many can recite the names of his parents and siblings....to end up what and who he is today. 

"That is the desire of every marketer and brand managers--capturing the mind of the market, conquer and dominate it. Dr Ruto had done his groundwork well and it was, it is... his moment," says marketing consultant, Ms Cecilia Munga.

Born on January 21,1967, to Daniel Cheruiyot and Sarah Cheruiyot, Dr Ruto's story has so far been that of scaling even the unimaginable heights.

Ms Munga says "Ruto right from his teen years won critical trust in political, social and economic spheres...and became a master in withstanding market forces".

She adds that " the moment he broke away from the presidential blocks in 2022 to defeat an incumbent president, deep state, system and gangs to be declared most powerful man in the country, his inspiration story became magnetic".

It is such a highly followed president who was sworn in on September 13, 2022, carrying the goodwill of a highly inspired support base.

It is perhaps confidence that he was a trusted man that he moved to rewrite the history of the country by making everything new.

From National Health Insurance Fund he moved the country to Social Health Authority, university education funding model changed, attempts to set rules about church donations and plotted to dominate the African Union Commission elections.

More astonishing to his Mt Kenya friends, he developed a craze to bet with numbers, experimenting with building new alliance with Mr Raila Odinga by first impeaching Rigathi Gachagua and going right ahead to form Broad-based Government that has no place in the Constitution. 

"We seriously loved President Ruto. I cannot even tell what exactly had drawn me to him. It was like a spirit. He is a man whose confidence was infectious. We all wanted to be near him serving under him at whatever capacity," says Murang'a Senator Joe Nyutu.

Mr Nyutu says listening to President Ruto speak was like visiting a confidence filling station "we strongly believed in him...a man who is religious, takes no alcohol, is not polygamous...loves culture...in short this was the leader we had all along prayed for".

On Thursday while speaking in Kajiado County, Mr Gachagua said "Ruto's overconfidence made him a one man show, changed into reckless dictatorship and today is a sorry reflection of the man we voted for...I am sorry that I was part of making him president".

Long serving administrator Mr Joseph Kaguthi says was Kenya at war and Dr Ruto a military General, "he would have managed to convince the majority into serving the war for free".

Mr Kaguthi says this is the goodwill that the country needed to be mobilised into rebuilding a debt, tribalism, crime, economic shutdown....ravaged country.

"Our President came out in kind exhibiting confidence that he was up to the task...that he was the timely vaccine for all the frustrations we have had since independence and our time to become an African economic tiger was now," he says.

He says he was amused to see youngsters who had been born when Ruto was already 40 years old equating him with freedom fighter.

"I'm not exactly sure how Dr Ruto managed to convince these youngsters that freedom fighters are those who confront Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga. They were convinced that Hustlers meant self rule and dynasties meant colonialism," he says.

Mr Kaguthi says the country was fairing on well until that confidence became overzealous, extreme and sometimes, reckless.

From a campaigning Ruto who had painted an image of ideal government that was to come with conducive environment to have businesses flourish, employment start chasing the jobless, the country became an international darling 

It was when the new Ruto administration started a taxation campaign that those who were his ardent supporters started withdrawing from his frontline defence.

"The Finance Bill 2024 was the turning point in the Dr Ruto inspiration story. The Bill demolished all the hard work he had applied in building himself as a hardy brand," says Political Scientist Mr John Okumu.

Mr Okumu adds that the Gen Z uprising served the country well.

"The uprising made the country get to its factory reset and fans started looking at their president from a perspective of reality. The hypnotisation was gone, we started seeing well out of our earlier blindness," he says.

Mr Okumu adds that "even the parliamentarians who had initially helped Dr Ruto capture power were mostly victims of biting too much into inspiration story of Dr Ruto life's and times".
He says "when you see young leaders like Babu Owino, Edwin Sifuna, John Methu, Njeri Maina...Karungo Thang'wa, Gitonga Mukunji...start running away from Ruto, it is because of that factory reset moment that has now been made possible by the Gen Z".

Mr Okumu says President Ruto knew he was loved and in his hurry to take his confidence to the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid to achieve self actualisation, forgot his underbelly.

"The president thought confidence was enough. He did not exactly factor in adding value to his confidence and trust with something very critical--wisdom to enable him consult and persuade," Mr Okumu said.

He says the Ruto edifice started to crumble when the very youths who had trusted in his inspiration story felt cheated.

Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah says "there is nothing sinister even in relationships than betrayed trust...you don't promise heaven and deliver hell and expect to continue receiving love".

He says the voices in the streets that are growing bolder by every dawn calling for liberation are products of betrayed trust.

But President Ruto loyalists paint a picture of a man who is misunderstood, misjudged and wrongly profiled.

"I can defend Dr Ruto even in the court of God that he is a clean-hearted man whose single desire is to serve. He is a man of unique intelligence and instincts," says Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri.

Mr Kiunjuri says "I have seen the president's heart mourn seeing things written or being said about him that are outrightly for competitive politics, but not a reflection of who he is".

Mr Kiunjuri feels the President is a man who is being set up with the voters by cartels that seek electoral conquest, but not wellness of the country.

He says "this is a president who we will bid farewell out of State House in 2032 feeling sorry for being unfair to him...wait and see the results of his transformational leadership that are about to start paying dividends in 2026".

Mr Kiunjuri said "you want to know who the president is, look at the company he has maintained since he was MP...he likes associating himself with the less privileged...those you hear being referred to as primary school dropouts by our accomplished propagandists".

Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot says "there will come a day when the right story of our president will be told".

He said "this president has been a victim of misreporting, misinterpretation, and misrepresentation to a point I feel his good side is never told, only what is injurious".

He said "President Ruto is a focused leader, intent to pursue what is right and necessarily not what is popular...for he is committed to serving this country with a solid focus of getting the tricky job done".

Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi says sometimes he believes that President Ruto story should be given a break.

"The more people speak about this president the more jumbled up it gets. A president who those of us know well agonises on how to get us out of problems that he did not create is the one who is sometimes branded as insensitive," Mr Sudi said.