If MPs are angry with Ruto the whistleblower, let them impeach him

The ongoing public spat between President William Ruto and MPs is no fight against corruption. It is the familiar spectacle of Kenya’s politics, where the executive throws accusations, MPs feign outrage, and both sides posture as defenders of integrity. In truth, it is a grotesque dance of hypocrisy between two arms of government that have for years colluded to loot, coerce, and manipulate the very public they now claim to protect.

Dr Ruto, who was once accused of being the most corrupt politician of our time, now wants to recast himself as a whistleblower. After pushing unpopular policies such as the Finance Bills of 2023 and 2024 and the Housing Levy in record time using allegedly using threats, coercion, and inducements to capture both Houses, the President has now turned around to accuse the same MPs of pocketing as much as Ksh10 million to pass the Anti-Money Laundering Bill, which ironically was a government Bill sponsored by his own office.

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This is the same Ruto who has never hesitated to buy loyalty where persuasion fails. He is the same president who splashes obscene millions in churches to buy divine cover and funnels billions into hollow “empowerment” schemes that serve politics, not the people. The President behaves as if money can buy him anything; power, loyalty, even silence. It is laughable and almost insulting for him to suddenly pretend to be shocked by bribery in Parliament.

If the President truly believes Parliament is corrupt, he should dissolve it instead of hiding behind the so-called Multi-Agency Team (MAT) on the war against corruption, a 10-member outfit including the EACC, NIS, ODPP, and DCI, chaired by his own office, which many Kenyans see as an empty exercise destined to achieve nothing. Kenya already has independent institutions mandated to fight corruption, including the EACC, DCI, and ODPP; all he needs to do is hand over whatever evidence he claims to have.

But fundamentally, if Parliament genuinely believes he is irredeemably corrupt, then it must rise to the moment and impeach him. One way or another, one side will and must finish the other, and the mwananchi will be left to deal with whoever emerges after the inevitable clash between the two arms of government. Kenya must become a better country, and perhaps this political standoff will be the ugly spark that finally forces that reckoning.

And if MPs are truly outraged, not merely embarrassed at having their usual feeding trough exposed, then now is their chance to prove it. Let them channel that anger into action. Let them move a motion to impeach the very man who is weaponising corruption claims in a desperate bid to salvage his plummeting political ratings.

Because make no mistake: The President’s outburst is not about morality or reform. To many Kenyans, it is nothing but desperation. Ruto has perfected the art of scapegoating, always pointing fingers at others but never at himself. From spending half of his first year in power blaming his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta for economic misrule, despite having been his deputy, to now accusing shadowy sponsors of the Gen Z protests, he has turned blame-shifting into his most reliable political tool. With his popularity in free fall, with ordinary Kenyans groaning under punitive taxes and broken promises, he now wants to posture as the people’s champion by scapegoating MPs. He is attempting to cleanse himself by smearing Parliament. But this gambit may backfire if the allegations succeed in uniting MPs across the political divide in a rare show of fury.

For years, Parliament has enabled Ruto’s excesses. They have been all along rubber-stamps of his oppressive policies, often amid whispers of cash exchanging hands in dark corridors, and even in toilets. They surrendered their independence and became a conveyor belt for State House dictates. Ruto fed them like hyenas, believing loyalty could be bought and controlled, but now those same hyenas are chewing louder, demanding more, and he finds himself irritated and now is scolding them for their insatiable appetite. The trouble is that once you fatten a hyena, it no longer hunts goats; it begins eying the owner.

Constitutionally, Parliament has the power to impeach a president who undermines the integrity of State institutions, violates public trust, or presides over gross misconduct. What could be more corrosive to public trust than a president who openly admits that Parliament is a marketplace of bribes while conveniently forgetting that he himself has been the chief trader in that market? What greater violation exists than a head of state publicly insulting the very institution mandated to check his power?

Kenyans are no fools; they are watching closely. They no longer believe Ruto’s empty promises, nor do they trust Parliament’s posturing, as both reek of corruption, betrayal, and hypocrisy. If MPs and senators are truly as outraged as they are foaming at mouth, they have one last chance to show they are not just errand boys and bribed cheerleaders for an executive that has already thrown them under the bus. They must rise to the challenge, impeach the President, and save the honour of the August House. If they fail, their outrage will be remembered as nothing more than hollow noise from a disgraced House that once again chose cowardice over courage.

Kenyans deserve better. And if Parliament does not act, then it too is complicit in the grand fraud that has reduced our democracy into a bazaar of bribes, broken promises, and political hyenas fighting over scraps while the people starve.

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