Kenya
The irresistible rise

Kenya's new president presents himself as a new man, a candidate against the "dynasties" of politicians. Although he comes from a poor family, the self-made man has been navigating the murky waters of politics for three decades... with ambition as his only compass.

Every Kenyan has heard this anecdote many times: in the early 1980s, William Samoei arap Ruto went to school barefoot, like many disadvantaged Africans. It was by selling chicken to truck drivers that the boy, a Kalenjin from the Rift Valley in the west of the country, managed to save enough money to buy his first pair of shoes at the age of 15. So, Ruto told the crowds at his election rallies, isn't he the best person to understand the "little people"? He too, he repeated during the presidential campaign, is a "resourceful person": one of those African entrepreneurs at heart, forced to be inventive and creative because of the ups and downs of market prices and the merciless world of the informal economy. Like all countries on the continent, Kenya has suffered the cumulative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic (especially in the tourism and horticulture sectors), and then the consequences of the invasion of Ukraine (it exports tea to the two belligerents, who supplied it with most of its wheat before the war): in such a context, Ruto's speech is promising.