Deputy President William Ruto during a Kenya Kwanza campaign rally at Kithimu trading centre in Embu county on July 1, 2022.
What you need to know:
We, of course, must remember never to profile people by identity, except conduct that’s outside the social bandwidth shouldn’t be overlooked.
I say so because of the increasingly bizarre – and unbecoming – conduct and outbursts by Deputy President William Ruto. As we approach the final electoral lap, Mr Ruto’s wailing has reached a fever pitch. It’s got so bad that Mr Ruto is effortlessly spitting out the most offensive epithets against opponents. His vituperative attacks on the side opposite don’t speak of a man who should carry the mantle of the state on August 9.
The presidency is the most powerful office in all the land. It wields enormous – and deadly – power. This is by decree of the Constitution, even if those powers are hemmed in by the Bill of Rights and other guardrails. But the presidency is also a bully pulpit, from whence the moral power of the office flows. All the people who live in Kenya – citizens and non-citizens alike – look to the presidency for hope and direction of the country.
Cost of democracy
Thus when a likely occupant of State House behaves in a manner to suggest that he’s either struggling mentally, or has a proclivity for cruelty, then we all need to disqualify him, or her, from the winner’s circle. The presidency isn’t anyone’s birthright. It’s the most hallowed of privileges granted of grace by those who hold the highest office in the land – citizens. Democracy isn’t free. It is, in fact, very expensive. Part of the cost of democracy is the education of the citizenry so it can distinguish between putative dictators and democrats, between dangerous demagogues and patriots. That’s why people must vote with their heads, not their hearts.
Where am I going with this? It’s the duty of intellectuals to speak truth to power.
That’s why societies expend vast resources educating a single human being beyond the first degree of college, known as a bachelor’s degree. There’s a presumption that anyone who has more than a basic degree has the potential to be an intellectual. That’s why Kenyan politicians buy fake master’s and PhD degrees. But I digress, though for good reason. If one isn’t a fake intellectual, it befuddles me how he, or she, can stand in the village square and root for Mr Ruto.
The man shouldn’t be let anywhere near State House. Let me extrapolate. I was utterly shocked recently when I heard Mr Ruto call Defence Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa a woman.
Mr Ruto’s attack – which he meant to be an insult – happened in Mr Wamalwa’s backyard.
Unbelievably, he told the Bukusu that he couldn’t slap Mr Wamalwa because Mr Wamalwa was a woman. My jaw dropped to the floor. Kenya is a patriarchal society and so Mr Ruto thought nothing of letting fly his inner misogyny, which he wears like a badge of honour.
Never mind that one of his lesser lieutenants – Senator Moses Wetang’ula – is also a Bukusu.
Mr Ruto – in a widely viewed video – once taunted Mr Wetang’ula for reporting to the police that he was battered by his wife. The implication was clear. Only men should batter women, and any man who is battered by a woman isn’t a man at all. Yet the other day Mr Ruto rushed to produce a women’s charter for United Democratic Alliance after Azimio’s Raila Odinga named Senior Counsel Martha Karua his running mate. I haven’t seen a better definition of hypocrisy.
Gender equality
The country will recall the advice Mr Ruto gave to his daughter on her wedding day a year ago.
Unbelievably, he told her she wasn’t her husband’s equal, and that she must always – always – submit herself to him. I was dumbfounded. What happened to gender equality? Isn’t our Constitution clear on this matter?
What is Mr Ruto telling Kenyan girls and women?
Allow me to remind Mr Ruto – if he cares to know – that his own mother, wife, and daughters – are women. Were it not for his mother, Mr Ruto wouldn’t have been. To turn round and demean, mock, and humiliate women – by using their gender as an epithet – shows a man who lacks basic civilisational moral code and structure. There’s no way to describe Mr Ruto other than a misogynist. He’s a hater of girls and women. Given his proclivity to slap men, one wonders how many girls and women he’s administered the slap. The man is clearly slap-happy. His anger appears uncontrollable. Let’s ask again, how can we elect him?
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. @makaumutua
- There’s no way to describe Mr Ruto other than a misogynist. He’s a hater of girls and women.
- Given his proclivity to slap men, one wonders how many girls and women he’s administered the slap.
We, of course, must remember never to profile people by identity, except conduct that’s outside the social bandwidth shouldn’t be overlooked.
I say so because of the increasingly bizarre – and unbecoming – conduct and outbursts by Deputy President William Ruto. As we approach the final electoral lap, Mr Ruto’s wailing has reached a fever pitch. It’s got so bad that Mr Ruto is effortlessly spitting out the most offensive epithets against opponents. His vituperative attacks on the side opposite don’t speak of a man who should carry the mantle of the state on August 9.
The presidency is the most powerful office in all the land. It wields enormous – and deadly – power. This is by decree of the Constitution, even if those powers are hemmed in by the Bill of Rights and other guardrails. But the presidency is also a bully pulpit, from whence the moral power of the office flows. All the people who live in Kenya – citizens and non-citizens alike – look to the presidency for hope and direction of the country.
Cost of democracy
Thus when a likely occupant of State House behaves in a manner to suggest that he’s either struggling mentally, or has a proclivity for cruelty, then we all need to disqualify him, or her, from the winner’s circle. The presidency isn’t anyone’s birthright. It’s the most hallowed of privileges granted of grace by those who hold the highest office in the land – citizens. Democracy isn’t free. It is, in fact, very expensive. Part of the cost of democracy is the education of the citizenry so it can distinguish between putative dictators and democrats, between dangerous demagogues and patriots. That’s why people must vote with their heads, not their hearts.
Where am I going with this? It’s the duty of intellectuals to speak truth to power.
That’s why societies expend vast resources educating a single human being beyond the first degree of college, known as a bachelor’s degree. There’s a presumption that anyone who has more than a basic degree has the potential to be an intellectual. That’s why Kenyan politicians buy fake master’s and PhD degrees. But I digress, though for good reason. If one isn’t a fake intellectual, it befuddles me how he, or she, can stand in the village square and root for Mr Ruto.
The man shouldn’t be let anywhere near State House. Let me extrapolate. I was utterly shocked recently when I heard Mr Ruto call Defence Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa a woman.
Mr Ruto’s attack – which he meant to be an insult – happened in Mr Wamalwa’s backyard.
Unbelievably, he told the Bukusu that he couldn’t slap Mr Wamalwa because Mr Wamalwa was a woman. My jaw dropped to the floor. Kenya is a patriarchal society and so Mr Ruto thought nothing of letting fly his inner misogyny, which he wears like a badge of honour.
Never mind that one of his lesser lieutenants – Senator Moses Wetang’ula – is also a Bukusu.
Mr Ruto – in a widely viewed video – once taunted Mr Wetang’ula for reporting to the police that he was battered by his wife. The implication was clear. Only men should batter women, and any man who is battered by a woman isn’t a man at all. Yet the other day Mr Ruto rushed to produce a women’s charter for United Democratic Alliance after Azimio’s Raila Odinga named Senior Counsel Martha Karua his running mate. I haven’t seen a better definition of hypocrisy.
Gender equality
The country will recall the advice Mr Ruto gave to his daughter on her wedding day a year ago.
Unbelievably, he told her she wasn’t her husband’s equal, and that she must always – always – submit herself to him. I was dumbfounded. What happened to gender equality? Isn’t our Constitution clear on this matter?
What is Mr Ruto telling Kenyan girls and women?
Allow me to remind Mr Ruto – if he cares to know – that his own mother, wife, and daughters – are women. Were it not for his mother, Mr Ruto wouldn’t have been. To turn round and demean, mock, and humiliate women – by using their gender as an epithet – shows a man who lacks basic civilisational moral code and structure. There’s no way to describe Mr Ruto other than a misogynist. He’s a hater of girls and women. Given his proclivity to slap men, one wonders how many girls and women he’s administered the slap. The man is clearly slap-happy. His anger appears uncontrollable. Let’s ask again, how can we elect him?
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. @makaumutua
Source: Sunday Nation tomorrow
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