This is a chronologically ordered list of the presidents of Kenya.
Jomo Kenyatta (1964–78)
Jomo Kenyatta (born c. 1894, Ichaweri, British East Africa [now in Kenya]—died August 22, 1978, Mombasa, Kenya) was an African statesman and nationalist, the first prime minister (1963–64) and then the first president (1964–78) of independent Kenya.
Early life
Kenyatta was born as Kamau, son of Ngengi, at Ichaweri, southwest of Mount Kenya in the East African highlands. His father was a leader of a small Kikuyu agricultural settlement. About age 10 Kamau became seriously ill with jigger infections in his feet and one leg, and he underwent successful surgery at a newly established Church of Scotland mission. This was his initial contact with Europeans. Fascinated with what he had seen during his recuperation, Kamau ran away from home to become a resident pupil at the mission. He studied the Bible, English, mathematics, and carpentry and paid his fees by working as a houseboy and cook for a European settler. In August 1914 he was baptized with the name Johnstone Kamau. He was one of the earliest of the Kikuyu to leave the confines of his own culture. And, like many others, Kamau soon left the mission life for the urban attractions of Nairobi.
There he secured a job as a clerk in the Public Works Department, and he also adopted the name Kenyatta, the Kikuyu term for a fancy belt that he wore. After serving briefly as an interpreter in the High Court, Kenyatta transferred to a post with the Nairobi Town Council. About this time he married and began to raise a family.
The first African political protest movement in Kenya against a white-settler-dominated government began in 1921—the East Africa Association (EAA), led by an educated young Kikuyu named Harry Thuku. Kenyatta joined the following year. One of the EAA’s main purposes was to recover Kikuyu lands lost when Kenya became a British crown colony (1920). The Africans were dispossessed, leaseholds of land were restricted to white settlers, and native reservations were established. In 1925 the EAA disbanded as a result of government pressures, and its members re-formed as the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA). Three years later Kenyatta became this organization’s general secretary, though he had to give up his municipal job as a consequence.Britannica QuizAfrican Leaders: Part One
Entrance into full-time politics
In May 1928 Kenyatta launched a monthly Kikuyu-language newspaper called Mwigithania (“He Who Brings Together”), aimed at gaining support from all sections of the Kikuyu. The paper was mild in tone, preaching self-improvement, and was tolerated by the government. But soon a new challenge appeared. A British commission recommended a closer union of the three East African territories (Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika). British settler leaders supported the proposal, expecting that internal self-government might follow. To the KCA such a prospect looked disastrous for Kikuyu interests; in February 1929 Kenyatta went to London to testify against the scheme, but in London the secretary of state for colonies refused to meet with him. In March 1930 Kenyatta wrote an eloquent letter in The Times of London setting out five issues championed by the KCA: (1) security of land tenure and the return of lands allotted to European settlers, (2) increased educational facilities, (3) repeal of hut taxes on women, which forced some to earn money by prostitution, (4) African representation in the Legislative Council, and (5) noninterference with traditional customs. He concluded by saying that the lack of these measures “must inevitably result in a dangerous explosion—the one thing all sane men wish to avoid.”
Again in 1931 Kenyatta’s testimony on the issue of closer union of the three colonies was refused, despite the help of liberals in the House of Commons. In the end, however, the government temporarily abandoned its plan for union. Kenyatta did manage to testify on behalf of Kikuyu land claims in 1932 at hearings of the Carter Land Commission. The commission decided to offer compensation for some appropriated territories but maintained the “white highlands” policy, which restricted the Kikuyu to overcrowded reserves. Kenyatta subsequently visited the Soviet Union (he spent two years at Moscow State University) and traveled extensively through Europe; on his return to England he studied anthropology under Bronisław Malinowski at the London School of Economics. His thesis was revised and published in 1938 as Facing Mount Kenya, a study of the traditional life of the Kikuyu characterized by both insight and a tinge of romanticism. This book signaled another name change, to Jomo (“Burning Spear”) Kenyatta.
During the 1930s Kenyatta briefly joined the Communist Party, met other black nationalists and writers, and organized protests against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The onset of World War II temporarily cut him off from the KCA, which was banned by the Kenya authorities as potentially subversive. Kenyatta maintained himself in England by lecturing and working as a farm labourer, and he continued to produce political pamphlets publicizing the Kikuyu cause.
Kenyatta helped organize the fifth Pan-African Congress, which met in Manchester, England, on October 15–18, 1945, with W.E.B. Du Bois of the United States in the chair; Kwame Nkrumah, the future leader of Ghana, was also present. Resolutions were passed and plans discussed for mass nationalist movements to demand independence from colonial rule.
Return to Kenya of Jomo Kenyatta
Kenyatta returned to Kenya in September 1946 to take up leadership of the newly formed Kenya African Union, of which he was elected president in June 1947. From the Kenya African Teachers College, which he directed as an alternative to government educational institutions, Kenyatta organized a mass nationalist party. But he had to produce tangible results in return for the allegiance of his followers, and the colonial government in Kenya was still dominated by unyielding settler interests. The “dangerous explosion” among the Kikuyu that he had predicted in 1930 erupted as the Mau Mau rebellion of 1952, which was directed against the presence of European settlers in Kenya and their ownership of land. On October 21, 1952, Kenyatta was arrested on charges of having directed the Mau Mau movement. Despite government efforts to portray Kenyatta’s trial as a criminal case, it received worldwide publicity as a political proceeding. In April 1953 Kenyatta was sentenced to a seven-year imprisonment for “managing the Mau Mau terrorist organization.” He denied the charge then and afterward, maintaining that the Kenya African Union’s political activities were not directly associated with Mau Mau violence.
The British government responded to African demands by gradually steering the country toward African majority rule. In 1960 the principle of one man, one vote was conceded. Kenyan nationalist leaders such as Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga organized the Kenya African National Union (KANU) and elected Kenyatta (still in detention despite having completed his sentence) president in absentia; they refused to cooperate with the British while Kenyatta was detained. In a press conference Kenyatta promised that “Europeans would find a place in the future Kenya provided they took their place as ordinary citizens.”
Kenyatta was released in August 1961, and, at the London Conference early in 1962, he negotiated the constitutional terms leading to Kenya’s independence. KANU won the preindependence election in May 1963, forming a provisional government, and Kenya celebrated its independence on December 12, 1963, with Kenyatta as prime minister. A year later Kenya became a one-party republic when the main opposition party went into voluntary liquidation. At the same time, Kenyatta became the first president of Kenya under a new constitutional amendment. In this office he headed a strong central government, and successive constitutional amendments increased his authority, giving him, for instance, the power to arrest political opponents and detain them without trial if he considered them dangerous to public order—a power he used effectively though infrequently. To forestall any tribally based opposition, Kenyatta consistently appointed members of different ethnic groups to his government, though he relied most heavily on his fellow Kikuyu. In general, Kenya enjoyed remarkable political stability under Kenyatta’s rule, though conflicts within KANU’s political leadership did occasionally break out because of ideological differences and tribal rivalries.
Kenyatta early on rejected socialist calls for the nationalization of property and instead preached a doctrine of personal and entrepreneurial effort, symbolized by his slogan “Harambee,” or “Pulling together.” Besides relying heavily on a free-market economy, he encouraged foreign investment from Western and other countries. Largely as a result of his policies, Kenya’s gross national product grew almost fivefold from 1971 to 1981, and its rate of economic growth was among the highest on the continent in the first two decades after independence. But though economic growth benefited large numbers of people, it also led to tremendous disparities of wealth, much of which was in the hands of Kenyatta’s family and close associates. This concentration of wealth, along with an extremely high rate of population growth, meant that most Kenyans did not realize a correspondingly large increase in their living standards under Kenyatta’s leadership.
In foreign policy, Kenyatta’s government was consistently friendly toward the West. Always—in spite of his imprisonment by the British authorities—one of the more pro-British of African leaders, Kenyatta made Kenya the most stable black African country and one of the most economically dynamic. After his death at Mombasa in 1978, Kenyatta was succeeded by Daniel arap Moi, who continued most of his policies.
Daniel arap Moi (1978–2002)
Daniel arap Moi (born September 2, 1924, Kuriengwo, Kenya Colony [now Kenya]—died February 4, 2020, Nairobi, Kenya) was a Kenyan politician, who held the office of president (1978–2002).
Moi was born the village of Kuriengwo, located in the Sacho locality in Baringo district (now county). He was educated at mission and government schools. Moi became a teacher at age 21 and in the early 1960s, as Kenya began to move toward independence (1963), was appointed minister of education in the transitional government. Although he had originally been cofounder and chairman of the Kenya African Democratic Union, a party composed of minority peoples, he joined the Kikuyu-dominated Kenya African National Union (KANU) in 1964. That same year Moi was appointed minister of home affairs.
Named vice president in 1967, Moi became president in 1978 following the death of Jomo Kenyatta. He quickly consolidated his power, banning opposition parties and promoting his Kalenjin countrymen to positions of authority at the expense of the Kikuyu. He also curried favour with the army, which proved loyal to him in suppressing a coup attempt in 1982. His continuation of Kenyatta’s pro-Western policies ensured significant sums of development aid during the Cold War (1947–91), and under Moi’s stewardship Kenya emerged as one of the most prosperous African nations.
In the early 1990s, however, Western countries began to demand political and economic reforms, leading Moi to legalize opposition parties in 1991. The following year he won the country’s first multiparty elections amid charges of electoral fraud. Riots and demonstrations marred the 1997 elections, and hundreds of Kenyans, mainly Kikuyu, were killed. Easily elected to his fifth term as president, Moi promised to end government corruption and implement democratic and economic reforms. In an effort to combat corruption, in 1999 he appointed Richard Leakey, the popular and respected anthropologist, the head of the civil service and permanent secretary to the cabinet, a position Leakey retired from in 2001.
Required by the constitution to resign in 2003, Moi backed Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo Kenyatta, as the KANU candidate in the 2002 elections, but many feared that Kenyatta would be a puppet for Moi. KANU split in two, with dissidents joining the National Rainbow Coalition, whose candidate, Mwai Kibaki, succeeded Moi in December 2002.
Mwai Kibaki (2002–13)
Mwai Kibaki (born November 15, 1931, Gatuyaini, Kenya—died April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as president of Kenya (2002–13).
Kibaki, a member of the Kikuyu people, attended Makerere University (B.A., 1955) in Uganda and the London School of Economics (B.Sc., 1959). He then worked as a teacher before becoming active in the Kenyan struggle for independence from Great Britain. After Kenya became independent in 1963, he won a seat in the National Assembly as a member of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party. He later served as minister of finance (1969–82) and vice president (1978–88) but increasingly found himself at odds with President Daniel arap Moi, who headed KANU. In 1991 Kibaki resigned his membership in KANU to form the Democratic Party.
Kibaki unsuccessfully challenged Moi in the presidential elections of 1992 and 1997, though in 1998 he became the official head of the opposition. With Moi constitutionally barred from seeking another presidential term, Kibaki sought the presidency for a third time. In September 2002 he helped create the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), a multiparty alliance that nominated Kibaki as its presidential candidate. A few weeks before the election, Kibaki was involved in a car accident and suffered serious injuries. Although he was confined to a wheelchair, he continued his campaign and easily defeated Moi’s chosen successor, Uhuru Kenyatta (a son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president). In parliamentary elections NARC routed the ruling KANU, which had dominated Kenya since the country’s independence.
As president, Kibaki pledged to eliminate the government corruption that had ruined the country’s economy and had resulted in the withdrawal of foreign aid. Although he established anticorruption courts, his attempts to pass anticorruption bills were largely unsuccessful. In 2003 legislators voted themselves large raises, which they said would discourage bribe taking. The move, however, was met with public criticism. Kibaki’s government also suffered from power struggles among the ruling coalition’s various constituent parties. This tension increased as lawmakers struggled to draft a new constitution, which Kibaki had promised during his campaign. Disagreements concerning reforms, especially the creation of a prime ministership, further divided NARC and delayed enactment of a new constitution, leading to public unrest. Members of his administration were mired in corruption in 2005, which further fueled public discontent. A new constitution, backed by Kibaki, was finally put to referendum in November 2005, but it was rejected by voters; the rejection was viewed by many as a public indictment of Kibaki’s administration.
In preparation for the December 2007 elections, Kibaki formed a new coalition, the Party of National Unity (PNU), which, surprisingly, included KANU. Several candidates stood in the presidential election, which was one of the closest in Kenya’s history and boasted a record-high voter turnout. After a delay in the release of the final election results, Kibaki was declared the winner, narrowly defeating Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). Odinga immediately disputed the outcome, and international observers questioned the validity of the final results. Widespread protests ensued throughout the country and degenerated into horrific acts of violence involving some of Kenya’s many ethnic groups, most notable of which were the Kikuyu (Kibaki’s group) and the Luo (Odinga’s group); both groups were victims as well as perpetrators. More than 1,000 people were killed and more than 600,000 were displaced in the election’s violent aftermath as efforts to resolve the political impasse between Kibaki and Odinga were not immediately successful.
On February 28, 2008, Kibaki and Odinga signed a power-sharing plan brokered by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and Jakaya Kikwete, president of Tanzania and chairman of the African Union. The plan called for the formation of a coalition government between PNU and ODM and the creation of several new positions, with Kibaki to remain president and Odinga to hold the newly created post of prime minister. Despite the agreement, however, conflict persisted over the distribution of posts. After several weeks of talks, the allocation of cabinet positions between PNU and ODM members was settled, and on April 13, 2008, Kibaki named a coalition government in which he retained the presidency. The coalition, however, was often fraught with tension.
A new constitution finally materialized during Kibaki’s second term. Designed to address the sources of ethnic and political tensions that had fueled the violence that followed the December 2007 election, the new constitution featured a decentralization of power and was supported by both Kibaki and Odinga. It was approved by voters in a referendum, and Kibaki signed it into law on August 27, 2010.
Barred from holding a third term as president, Kibaki stepped down at the end of his term in April 2013. He was succeeded by Kenyatta, who had defeated Odinga in an election held the previous month.
Uhuru Kenyatta (2013–22)
Uhuru Kenyatta (born October 26, 1961, Nairobi, Kenya) is a Kenyan businessman and politician who held several government posts before serving as president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022.
Early life
The son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president, Uhuru was raised in a wealthy and politically powerful Kikuyu family. He attended St. Mary’s School in Nairobi, where he played as a winger for the school’s rugby team. He then went on to study political science and economics at Amherst College in Massachusetts. After his return to Kenya, he started a horticultural business that became quite successful. He also assumed some responsibility for managing his family’s extensive business holdings.
Political rise and ICC charges
Kenyatta became politically active in the 1990s. In 1997 he was chair of a local branch of the Kenya African National Union (KANU)—the longtime ruling party that his father had once led—and later that year ran unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat. In spite of his loss, KANU leader and Kenyan Pres. Daniel arap Moi seemed intent on grooming him for a greater role in public service. He appointed Kenyatta to chair the Kenya Tourist Board in 1999, and the following year Kenyatta was given the additional task of chairing the Disaster Emergency Response Committee.
Kenyatta’s political profile rose considerably in October 2001, when he was nominated by President Moi to fill a parliament seat; Moi then elevated him to the cabinet as minister for local government a month later. In 2002 Kenyatta was elected as one of four vice-chairs of KANU. Also that year, he was named the KANU candidate for the presidency—a controversial move engineered by outgoing President Moi, who was ineligible to stand for another term and wanted someone of his own choosing to succeed him; many feared that Moi would continue to rule through Kenyatta if the younger man were elected. Moi’s machinations backfired, however, as some KANU members bristled at the lack of debate within the party regarding Kenyatta’s selection as Moi’s successor, and they left KANU to support opposition leader Mwai Kibaki, who handily defeated Kenyatta in elections held in December 2002. Kenyatta then assumed the position of leader of the opposition in parliament.
Kenyatta’s star continued to rise within KANU, and he was elected chairman of the party in 2005. In the run-up to Kenya’s next presidential election, held in December 2007, Kenyatta again threw his hat into the ring, but he withdrew his candidacy a few months before the election and opted instead to back Kibaki, who was running for reelection against Raila Odinga and several other challengers. When the election results showed that Kibaki had narrowly defeated Odinga, the outcome was rejected by many of the latter’s supporters and was followed by weeks of widespread violence along ethnic lines, with the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest ethnic group, being both instigators and targets of violence. Kibaki initially named Kenyatta as minister of local government in January 2008, but in a coalition government formed in April Kenyatta was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of trade. The next year, he was moved from the ministry of trade and became the minister of finance.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had started an investigation into the violence that followed the December 2007 polls. In late 2010 Kenyatta was named by the ICC as being one of six suspects thought to be most responsible for instigating the postelection violence; he immediately disputed the allegations and proclaimed his innocence. In January 2012 the ICC announced that four of the six suspects, including Kenyatta, would face trial. They were charged with committing crimes against humanity; the charges included allegations that Kenyatta had helped mobilize and fund the Mungiki, a Kikuyu criminal gang, in the group’s attacks on Odinga’s supporters in the aftermath of the disputed election. Shortly after the charges were announced, Kenyatta resigned as minister of finance but remained in his post as deputy prime minister.
Presidency
The ICC charges did not dissuade Kenyatta from once again pursuing his aspirations for the presidency. Kenyatta and KANU parted ways in April 2012, and the next month Kenyatta launched a new party, The National Alliance (TNA). Later that year he and TNA became part of a multiparty alliance known as the Jubilee Coalition, which also included one of the other ICC suspects, William Ruto, and his United Republican Party. Kenyatta and Ruto campaigned together for the posts of president and deputy president, respectively. In light of the ICC proceedings, the eligibility of the two men to stand in the election was called into question by some, but in February 2013 the High Court of Kenya dismissed a case that sought to bar them from standing. Kenyatta went on to win the presidential election in the first round of voting, held on March 4, 2013, squeaking by with 50.07 percent of the vote. His nearest challenger was Odinga, who garnered 43.31 percent. Odinga did not at first concede. Citing what he deemed irregularities with the election, he filed a challenge to the results with Kenya’s Supreme Court. The court later upheld the election results, and Odinga conceded. Kenyatta was sworn in as president on April 9, 2013.
By the time of the 2013 election, Kenyatta had an estimated net worth of $500 million, making him one of Kenya’s richest citizens. Among his family’s considerable business holdings were ventures in the areas of media, banking, tourism, insurance, and dairy. He and his family also owned more than 500,000 acres of land in Kenya, much of which had been acquired by his father during a postcolonial land-transfer program. Their real estate holdings made the family one of the largest landowners in a country where landownership disputes were a long-standing source of resentment among people whose families had been displaced during the colonial era.
As president, Kenyatta had to deal with the increasing threat from al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group based in neighbouring Somalia and angered over Kenya’s military involvement against them in that country. In retaliation, the group launched a number of deadly attacks on Kenyan soil. Domestically, Kenyatta presided over the implementation of a new government administrative unit of counties, which replaced the previous unit of provinces, as well as fielded complaints of poor government, corruption, and insecurity.
Kenyatta continued to face charges at the ICC. Although the trial of his deputy president, Ruto, began in September 2013, Kenyatta’s trial was repeatedly delayed. The defense claimed that there was not a strong enough case against him and that the charges should be dropped, while the prosecution complained of a lack of cooperation from Kenyan officials in gathering evidence. In December 2014 the ICC prosecution dropped all charges against Kenyatta, claiming that the Kenyan government had obstructed the ICC in the gathering of critical evidence and citing the widespread intimidation of its witnesses, both of which had hampered the prosecution’s case. ICC judges formally approved the withdrawal of charges and terminated the case proceedings in March 2015. They noted, however, that ICC prosecutors could reinstate charges at any time if there was evidence to support such a course of action.
In preparation for the 2017 elections, the parties that constituted Kenyatta’s Jubilee Coalition dissolved and then re-formed as one political organization, the Jubilee Party, in September 2016. Kenyatta was the flag bearer for the new party, with Ruto again serving as his running mate. In the August 8, 2017, presidential election, Kenyatta was reelected with more than 54 percent of the vote. His nearest challenger was again Odinga—this time representing a coalition of opposition parties called the National Super Alliance (NASA)—who trailed him with about 45 percent.
In a stunning turn of events, however, Kenyatta’s reelection was overturned on September 1 when the Supreme Court nullified the results of the presidential poll and ordered a new election, which was to be held within 60 days. The ruling was in response to a petition that Odinga and NASA had filed with the court, alleging that the results of the presidential election had been manipulated and were therefore compromised and should be nullified. Kenyatta, although initially saying that he disagreed with the ruling but would respect it, soon had harsh words for the judges involved in the decision, calling them crooks and referring to them as a problem that he would fix after his reelection.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) scheduled the date of the new election for October 17, but, after the Supreme Court released its detailed ruling on September 20 regarding the specific reasons why it had annulled the August presidential election, the IEBC pushed the date back to October 26 in order to provide the commission with more time to address the shortcomings cited by the court. The ruling criticized the conduct of the IEBC and noted many concerns with the vote tallying and transmission process cited by NASA that the judges felt had affected the validity of the election.
As the October 26 poll date grew closer, tensions rose in the country. Kenyatta and Ruto campaigned for the upcoming election while NASA and Odinga pressed the IBEC to make what they deemed necessary changes to ensure that a credible election could be conducted; they also held regular demonstrations to show support for making the aforementioned changes. The IEBC said that some of the requested changes had occurred but that others were not possible, given the time constraints and other limitations affecting the commission’s work. Meanwhile, Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party quickly passed a bill with two controversial election-related amendments in the National Assembly and sent it to Kenyatta to sign into law. The amendments, which were criticized by NASA and others, included measures such as limiting the judiciary’s ability to void an election and allowing a candidate to automatically be declared the winner of a contested post if the other candidate withdrew from an election. Although Kenyatta never signed the amendments bill, it automatically became law in November.
Uncertainty regarding the upcoming presidential poll spiked on October 10, when Odinga withdrew from it. Although Odinga believed that the IEBC would now need to abandon the poll and call for fresh elections to be held in 90 days, Kenyatta insisted that the presidential election would take place on October 26 as scheduled, with the IEBC appearing to agree with him. The future of the election grew more uncertain when, a week later, an IEBC member fled the country and resigned from the commission after receiving threats to her life. She claimed that there was no way for the IEBC to provide a credible election under the current circumstances, an assessment with which the head of the IEBC later agreed. A last-minute petition to the Supreme Court attempting to halt the poll failed when not enough of the court’s justices showed up for the hearing. Nonetheless, the election proceeded on October 26 as planned. Kenyatta won handily, taking about 98 percent of the vote. His victory, however, was clouded by the circumstances surrounding the election: Odinga’s withdrawal, a call by NASA for Kenyans to boycott the poll, and the fact that voting was unable to take place in some NASA-dominated areas for security reasons—all of which led to a low turnout that was less than half that of the August election..
As was the case with the August election, the validity of the October poll was challenged, though this time NASA was not one of the parties that filed petitions with the Supreme Court. The court dismissed the challenges and upheld Kenyatta’s victory, paving the way for him to be sworn in for his second term on November 28, 2017.
In an unexpected turn of events, Kenyatta and Odinga appeared together in March 2018, shaking hands and apparently having reconciled. After “the handshake,” as it became known, the two collaborated on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), a task force that met with citizens from all walks of life in Kenya to identify the country’s primary challenges and then recommend solutions. In November 2019 the BBI released its report and recommendations, including many that would allow for a greater sharing of power among Kenya’s many ethnic groups. The recommendations were incorporated into a constitutional amendment bill, which passed in both houses of parliament in May 2021. Before it could be put to a public referendum, however, the constitutionality of the amendment bill was challenged in the courts. The bill’s critics—of whom Kenyatta’s deputy president, Ruto, was one—had several complaints about the BBI process and resulting amendment bill, such as that it would be too expensive implement, was nothing more than a political power play, and violated the constitution. Indeed the bill was struck down as being unconstitutional in both the High Court and the Court of Appeals that year, a key reason being Kenyatta’s involvement in the process: he had used a constitutional provision for initiating amendments that was designated for ordinary citizens, not an executive leader like himself. The case made its way to the Supreme Court, which in March 2022 also ruled that the amendment bill was unconstitutional for the same reason, thus halting the efforts to implement the BBI recommendations by changing the constitution. The court’s ruling was a blow to Kenyatta.
Meanwhile, the country prepared for the August 2022 general election. As Kenyatta was constitutionally obligated to step down after serving two terms, he would not be able to stand in the presidential poll. His relationship with his deputy president and previous heir apparent, Ruto, had deteriorated during his second term, so much so that months before the election, he declared Ruto to be unfit for the presidency and instead threw his support to Odinga, who was running for president as the flag-bearer of the Azimio la Umoja alliance that included Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party. Undaunted, Ruto stood as the presidential candidate for the United Democratic Alliance party, part of the broader Kenya Kwanza alliance, and was elected by a narrow margin. Kenyatta stepped down at the end of his term on September 13, 2022.
William Ruto (2022– )
William Ruto (born December 21, 1966, Sambut, Kenya) is a Kenyan businessman and politician who has served as president of Kenya since 2022.
Personal life and education
Ruto was born in Sambut village in Kamagut (now in Uasin Gishu county) to Daniel and Sarah Cheruiyot. He was raised in a religious family, and he has been a member of the African Inland Church. Ruto attended Kerotet Primary School and then Wareng Secondary School before proceeding to Kapsabet High School. Eventually, he enrolled at the University of Nairobi, whence he graduated with a B.S. in botany and zoology (1990). He would later resume his education at the same institution, earning both an M.S. (2011) and a Ph.D (2018) in plant ecology. Ruto married Rachel Chebet in 1991, and they have six children together. He also has a daughter with Prisca Chemutai Bett.
Ruto has often described the poverty of his youth, recalling how he went barefoot for many years and sold peanuts and chickens on the side of the road to make money. As an adult, he managed to amass a considerable amount of wealth from his many business ventures, which include holdings in the areas of real estate, agriculture, hospitality, and insurance.
Entry into politics
Ruto became involved in politics in 1992. In the run-up to the general election held that year, he helped found the Youth for KANU 1992 group, which supported the presidential candidacy of Daniel arap Moi of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party. Ruto was first elected to the parliament in 1997 and was reelected in 2002. Also in 2002 he briefly served as minister of Home Affairs under Moi. Amid a split in KANU over Moi’s choosing Uhuru Kenyatta to be the party’s presidential candidate in the 2002 election, Ruto chose to remain in the party and support Kenyatta’s bid for the presidency. (Kenyatta lost to Mwai Kibaki.)
Ruto ascended to the position of secretary-general of KANU in 2005. That same year the government held a referendum on a proposed new constitution. Ruto opposed that constitution and formed an alliance with prominent figures from other political parties to campaign against it. Their efforts were successful, as a majority of voters rejected the new document. The next year, Ruto announced his intent to run for president, which was not well received by KANU. Consequently, he instead sought the nomination of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the coalition resulting from the alliance that had campaigned against the 2005 constitution, but he lost the ODM nomination to Raila Odinga. Ruto officially resigned from his post as secretary-general of KANU in October 2007.
Disputed 2007 elections, violent aftermath, and coalition government
In the hotly contested December 2007 elections, Ruto, now as part of the ODM, supported Odinga in his bid to unseat the incumbent president, Kibaki. Although provisional results pointed toward a victory for Odinga, official results showed that Kibaki had won by a narrow margin. Those results were rejected by Odinga and were also questioned by international observers. Widespread protests ensued throughout the country and gave way to brutal acts of violence involving some of Kenya’s many ethnic groups—most notably, the Kikuyu (Kibaki’s group), the Kalenjin (Ruto’s group), and the Luo (Odinga’s group); all three groups were victims as well as perpetrators. More than 1,000 people were killed and some 600,000 were displaced in the weeks-long unrest.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Subscribe Now
Months-long mediation efforts halted the violence and in April 2008 saw the creation of a coalition government in which Kibaki remained president and Odinga held the newly created post of prime minister. Ruto was appointed minister for two portfolios in the government: agriculture (2008–10) and higher education (2010–11). He also retained his parliamentary seat. After a falling-out with Odinga, he left the ODM and briefly found a home in the United Democratic Movement before landing in the United Republican Party in 2012.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had opened an investigation into the postelection violence of 2007–08. In December 2010 the ICC released the names of six individuals thought to have been most responsible for instigating the violence, and Ruto and Kenyatta were among those named. In January 2012 Ruto was charged with having committed crimes against humanity during the postelection period, allegedly organizing and coordinating targeted attacks against the ethnic groups from which Kibaki typically found much support.
“UhuRuto,” 2013 elections, and ICC trial
Undaunted by his ICC charges, Ruto continued to pursue his political aspirations. He reunited with Kenyatta, and the two men and their parties joined a multiparty alliance named the Jubilee Coalition to contest the March 2013 elections, in which Kenyatta ran for president and Ruto for deputy president; the two were dubbed “UhuRuto.” There were seven other pairs of candidates for those posts, foremost of whom were Odinga and his running mate, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, but Kenyatta and Ruto won, garnering slightly more than 50 percent of the vote. A challenge to the results from Odinga was ultimately dismissed, and on April 9 Kenyatta and Ruto were inaugurated as president and deputy president, respectively.
On September 10 the ICC opened its trial of Ruto and Joshua arap Sang, a radio executive and broadcaster. The proceedings continued until April 5, 2016, when the ICC judges terminated the case because they had found insufficient evidence that could lead to a conviction. They did, however, note “a troubling incidence of witness interference and intolerable political meddling” and said that Ruto could be retried later by either the ICC or a national court. In 2015 the ICC had also terminated its proceedings against Kenyatta.
2017 elections
With their ICC trials behind them, Ruto and Kenyatta looked to the next general election. The parties in their Jubilee Coalition re-formed in September 2016, creating a single party, the Jubilee Party, with Kenyatta and Ruto running for reelection in the August 8, 2017, polls. They were successful, taking more than 54 percent of the vote. As in the last general election, the nearest challenger for president had been Odinga, and he again contested the outcome. This time, though, the Supreme Court annulled the results and instead called for a fresh election, which was held on October 26. However, having cited concerns about unresolved problems with the electoral process, Odinga had withdrawn from the race and had asked his supporters to boycott it. Kenyatta and Ruto won again, this time by a landslide, but against the backdrop of very poor voter turnout. On November 28 they were sworn in for their second term. It would be Kenyatta’s last term as president, as he was limited by the constitution to serving only two terms. Ruto, on the other hand, was now well positioned to be the party’s next presidential candidate.
Estrangement from Kenyatta
During his second term as deputy president, Ruto’s relationship with Kenyatta cooled considerably. In contrast, the president and Odinga unexpectedly reconciled in 2018 and went on to collaborate on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) task force, which studied the challenges facing the country and proposed solutions. The high-profile collaboration between the two men exacerbated Ruto’s alienation from Kenyatta and contributed to the loss of his status as the presumptive heir to the presidency. After the BBI’s recommendations were adopted into a constitutional amendment bill, Ruto was among the detractors who thought the bill would be too costly to implement andconsidered it to be a political power play. He was also among those who celebrated in March 2022 when the bill was ruled unconstitutional and could not be enacted.
2022 elections
By the time of the August 2022 general election, Kenya’s political landscape had dramatically changed since the previous vote. Ruto, who had exited the Jubilee Party, was now the presidential candidate of a new party, the United Democratic Alliance, which was part of the Kenya Kwanza alliance of political parties. In February Kenyatta had publicly forsaken his running mate of the previous two elections, declaring Ruto unfit to be president and endorsing Odinga for the top spot instead. The Jubilee Party had endorsed Odinga as well and had joined his Azimio la Umoja alliance.
In a field of four candidates vying for the presidency, Ruto and Odinga were the front-runners. During the campaign, Ruto used the archetype of a “hustler”—his term for regular Kenyans who had to work hard to make ends meet and who struggled to get ahead. He framed the vote as a choice between “hustlers,” among whom he numbered himself, and the wealthy political dynasties to which Odinga and Kenyatta belonged. Following the August 9 elections, the head of the electoral commission declared Ruto the winner of the presidential contest, with 50.49 percent of the vote, which had bested his closest challenger, Odinga, with 48.85 percent. Initially, however, Ruto’s victory was marred by uncertainty, as four of the seven electoral commissioners had disavowed the results before they were announced, and Odinga did not accept the results, choosing to once again file a challenge with the Supreme Court. On September 5 the Court upheld the results, saying that no credible evidence of fraud had been presented. Ruto was inaugurated as president on September 13.
