William Ruto

William Kipchirchir Samoei Arap Ruto CGH (born 21 January 1967) is a Kenyan politician who is the fifth and current president of Kenya since 13 September 2022. Prior to becoming president, he served as the first elected deputy president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. He previously served in three cabinet portfolios as the Minister for Home Affairs, the Minister of Agriculture and as Minister for Higher Education.
Ruto was elected Member of Parliament for Eldoret North constituency from 1997 to 2007 under the KANU, and from 2007 to 2013 through the ODM party. He was the Minister for Home Affairs in the Daniel arap Moi administration from August to December 2002.
Under the Mwai Kibaki administration, he was the Minister for Agriculture from 2008 to 2010 and Minister for Higher Education from April to October 2010. Ruto first contested for the presidency during the 2007 election, but lost to Raila Odinga on the ODM party primaries; together with Musalia Mudavadi, who finished second, he then supported the candidature of Odinga. He again ran for the presidency on the 2013 election, but withdrew his candidature in favour of Uhuru Kenyatta.
He was later nominated to run for the deputy presidency in the 2013 election under the United Republican Party, becoming the running mate of Uhuru Kenyatta from The National Alliance (TNA). He was re-elected to the deputy presidency under the Jubilee Party in the 2017 Kenyan general election. Ruto successfully ran for the presidency in the 2022 election, this time under the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
Amidst a fall-out, Kenyatta supported his opponent Raila Odinga. The election was marred by allegations of electoral fraud by allies of Odinga, although international observers have not corroborated such claims.
A member of the Kalenjin people of the Rift Valley Province, William Ruto was born on 21 January 1967 in Sambut village, Kamagut, Uasin Gishu County, to Daniel Cheruiyot and Sarah Cheruiyot.
Ruto started his education at Kamagut Primary School, then transferred to Kerotet Primary School—both situated within the Uasin Gishu County; and he sat for his Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) at the latter. He then proceeded to Wareng Secondary School, still in Uasin Gishu County, and later Kapsabet High School in Nandi County, where he obtained his Ordinary Level and Advanced Level education respectively.
He then enrolled at the University of Nairobi to pursue Botany and Zoology, graduating in 1990 with a BSc. He went on to complete an MSc in Plant Ecology, also from the University of Nairobi. The year after his graduation, he enrolled for a Ph.D. at the same university, and after several setbacks, he completed and graduated on 21 December 2018.
Ruto authored several papers, including one titled Plant Species Diversity and Composition of Two Wetlands in the Nairobi National Park, Kenya.
During his time in the campus for his undergraduate education, Ruto was an active member of the Christian Union. He also served as the Chairman of the University of Nairobi's choir. Through his church activities at the University of Nairobi, he met President Daniel arap Moi, who would later introduce him to politics during the 1992 general elections.
After graduating from the University of Nairobi in 1990, Ruto was employed as a temporary teacher in the North Rift region of Kenya from 1990 to 1992, where he was also a leader of the local church choir, the Africa Inland Church (AIC).
Ruto began his political career when he became the treasurer of the YK'92 campaign group that was lobbying for the re-election of President Moi in 1992, from which he learned the basics of Kenyan politics. He is also believed to have accumulated some wealth in this period. After the 1992 elections, President Moi disbanded YK'92 and Ruto unsuccessfully vied for various branch-level positions in KANU, which was at that time Kenya's ruling party.
Ruto ran for a parliamentary seat in the 1997 general election. He surprisingly beat the incumbent, Reuben Chesire, Moi's preferred candidate, as well as the Uasin Gishu KANU branch chairman and assistant minister. He later gained favour with Moi and was appointed KANU Director of Elections. His strong support in 2002 for Moi's preferred successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, saw him get a place as assistant minister in the Home Affairs (Interior) ministry. Later in that election, when some government ministers resigned to join the opposition, he was promoted to full Cabinet Minister. KANU lost the election but he retained his parliamentary seat. Ruto was elected KANU Secretary General in 2005, with Uhuru Kenyatta elected as chairman.
In 2005, Kenya held a referendum on a new constitution, which KANU opposed. Some members of the ruling NARC coalition government, mainly former KANU ministers who had joined the opposition coalition in 2002 under the LDP banner and who were disgruntled as President Kibaki had not honored a pre-election MoU on power-sharing and creation of a Prime Minister post, joined KANU to oppose the proposed constitution. Since the symbol of the "No" vote was an Orange, this new grouping named their movement the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). Ruto was part of its top brass, dubbed the Pentagon. He solidified his voter base in the Rift Valley Province. ODM was victorious in the referendum.
In January 2006, Ruto declared publicly that he would vie for the presidency in the next general election (2007). His statement was condemned by some of his KANU colleagues, including former president Moi. By this time, ODM had morphed into a political party. Ruto sought the nomination of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) as its presidential candidate, but on 1 September 2007, he placed third with 368 votes. The winner was Raila Odinga with 2,656 votes and the runner-up was Musalia Mudavadi with 391. Ruto expressed his support for Odinga after the vote. As KANU under Uhuru Kenyatta moved to support Kibaki, he resigned from his post as KANU secretary general on 6 October 2007.
The presidential election of December 2007 ended in an impasse. Kenya's electoral commission declared Kibaki the winner, but Raila and ODM claimed the victory. Mwai Kibaki was hurriedly sworn in as the president of the December 2007 presidential election. Following the election and the dispute over the result, Kenya was engulfed by a violent political crisis. Kibaki and Odinga agreed to form a power-sharing government. In the grand coalition Cabinet named on 13 April 2008 and sworn in on 17 April, Ruto was appointed as Minister for Agriculture. Ruto also became the Eldoret North's Member of Parliament from 2008 to 4 March 2013.
Ruto was among the list of people who were indicted to stand trial at the ICC for their involvement in Kenya's 2007/2008 political violence. However, the ICC case was faced with challenges, especially concerning the withdrawal of key prosecution witnesses. In April 2016, the Court dropped the charges against Ruto.
On 21 April 2010, Ruto was transferred from the Agriculture Ministry and posted to the Higher Education Ministry, swapping posts with Sally Kosgei. On 24 August 2011, Ruto was relieved of his ministerial duties but remained a member of parliament. He joined with Uhuru Kenyatta to form the Jubilee alliance for the 2013 presidential election.
On 6 October 2014, Ruto was appointed acting president of Kenya by the then President Uhuru Kenyatta following his summons to appear before the ICC. He served in the role between 6 and 9 October 2014 while President Kenyatta was away at The Hague. When he officially handed over power to Ruto at the Parliament on October 6, Uhuru explained, "To protect the sovereignty of the Republic of Kenya, I will sign a legal notice appointing Hon William Ruto as acting president while I attend the status conference."
In the August 2017 General Elections, Uhuru and Ruto were declared victors after garnering 54% of the total votes cast. However, the Supreme Court of Kenya nullified the election, and a fresh election was held in October 2017. The opposition boycotted the fresh election and Uhuru and Ruto were re-elected with 98% of the total votes cast. The Supreme Court upheld the results of this second election.
In December 2020 Ruto announced his alliance with the newly formed United Democratic Alliance party. He was the only presidential candidate to attend the second part of the 2022 presidential debate.
On 15 August 2022, six days after the general election held on 9 August, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chair Wafula Chebukati announced that Ruto had won the presidential election, defeating candidate Raila Odinga of the Azimio La Umoja party. Ruto received 50.49% of the valid votes cast, while Odinga received 48.85%.
Odinga disputed the presidential election results announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, and he challenged the results with the Supreme Court. On 5 September, the Supreme Court judges unanimously found that evidence presented by Odinga's campaign inconclusive and upheld the election of Ruto as the winner of the election. In response to the ruling, Odinga said he respected the Supreme Court's decision even though he strongly disagreed with it.
On 13 September 2022 he was inaugurated at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in a ceremony presided over by Chief Justice Martha Koome, and attended by over 20 heads of state and government. The inauguration day was declared a public holiday. Attendance was very high, with groups of the general public clashing with security officials when trying to enter the stadium; however, the event continued peacefully. Following his inauguration he officially began his term as President of Kenya.
After taking office Ruto pledged to address climate change and end the use of fossil fuels in Kenya's electricity production by 2030.
On 18 September 2022 President Ruto made his first foreign trip as head of state to the United Kingdom, during which he attended the state funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022 at Westminster Abbey in London.
Two days later, on 21 September 2022, President Ruto made his debut address as head of state to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. He nodded to President Biden's "Build Back Better" domestic plan, proposing a global effort toward "building back better from the bottom upward." The goal, he said, should be "including the marginalized, working majority in the economic mainstream." Other themes he addressed were the expansion of the representation of Africa on the U.N. Security Council, increased investment in the African continent, "moving Africa from aid to investment", tapping "the ever-bustling" human capital for economic prosperity and a concerted effort towards tackling climate change in the world.
In September 2022, he said that the Horn of Africa was experiencing its worst drought in 40 years, adding that "3.1 million people are facing severe drought" in Kenya alone.
Asked about the ongoing Tigray War in northern Ethiopia between government forces and Tigray rebels, Ruto said that "whatever happens in Ethiopia gets to Kenya".
Speaking about the Somali Civil War, he said that "Kenyan troops will come back home as soon as we're done with the assignment that we have in Somalia."
In November 2022 Ruto's government launched the Hustler Fund, a loan program to grant immediate loans to Kenyan citizens.
In 2023 Ruto proposed a large-scale privatisation of public enterprises, noting that it is not economically viable to keep pumping government resources into sustaining those corporations.
On 25 June 2024 at least five people were killed when public order broke down over tax protests. Ruto proposed several tax rises because more than half of its annual tax revenues are spent to service debt. The increased taxes are proposed "on everything from car ownership and financial transactions to sanitary pads."
On 11 July Ruto sacked most of his cabinet save for the deputy president and prime cabinet secretary, and the next day the police chief Japhet Koome resigned after 40 people died over the past month in the Kenya Finance Bill protests. Koome was held responsible for police violence against protesters. It was noted that "[a]bout 60% of Kenya's collected revenues goes to servicing debt."
In September 2024, William Ruto and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed an agreement that opened the German labor market to up to 250,000 skilled and semi-skilled migrant workers from Kenya. The agreement will also simplify the deportation of Kenyans from Germany. There are concerns about brain drain in Kenya, as professionals such as doctors and nurses could leave for better-paying jobs in Germany. The deal was made at a time when the anti-immigration AfD party is growing in popularity in Germany.
Ruto has been involved in a land grabbing saga involving his mysterious acquisition of Weston Hotel land, pitted against public counteraccusations with several state corporations in Kenya, all surrounding the original owner of the land. According to The Standard, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), a state agency, was duped into surrendering the land on which the Weston Hotel was built. In 2001, KCAA, which originally occupied the land, was given alternative pieces of land belonging to another state agency, the meteorological department. KCAA did not occupy the alternative piece of land upon which Ruto's Weston Hotel was built. According to KCAA, a powerful cartel, working in the lands ministry was involved in a conspiracy to relinquish the same piece of land with several land ministry officers also involved in the conspiracy. In January 2019, it emerged that according to another state agency, the National Lands Commission, Ruto owed and needed to pay the people of Kenya for the land 0.773 acres opposite Wilson Airport upon which the Weston Hotel was built. In February 2019, Ruto publicly admitted the Weston Hotel land had been acquired illegally by the original owners who sold him the land, and that he had no knowledge of the matter. In August 2020, Ruto offered to pay the state agency for the land. Later in 2020, KCAA was refused to be compensated for the land and so, demanded demolition of the hotel because of acquisition through illegality, fraud and corruption. According to the KCAA, the public land was designated for the construction of headquarters and flight paths, and it had been disposed of the land by collusion with private entities, Priority Ltd and Monene Investments both reported to be associated with Ruto. Later in the same month, another legislator, Ngunjiri Wambugu, demanded all other cases in Kenya involving stolen property be thrown out as long as suspects were willing to compensate for it, in an effort to complain about the preferential treatment Ruto was receiving for his involvement in the state's stolen property. In December 2020, the KCB Bank backed Ruto in the court battle to repossess the land, fearing the loss of security against the advancement of 1.2 billion shillings in Weston hotel associated with Ruto.
In 2004, Ruto was charged with defrauding another state corporation, Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), of huge amounts of money through dubious land deals. He was acquitted in 2011 but in 2020, as his relationship with President Uhuru Kenyatta seemed to falter amid the President's push for an anti-corruption war, the police re-opened investigations in the case.
In June 2013, a court ordered Ruto to pay a victim of 2007/08 post-election violence 5 million shillings for illegally taking away his land during the post-election violence. In the same judgement, Ruto was evicted from the grabbed land in Uasin Gishu. Adrian Muteshi had accused Ruto of grabbing and trespassing on his 100-acre piece of land in Uasin Gishu after he, Adrian, had fled his land for safety during the post-election violence of 2007/08. In February 2014, Ruto appealed the court order to pay the 5 million shilling fine. In 2017, Ruto withdrew the appeal against the judgment. In October 2020, Adrian Muteshi died of an unspecified cause at the age of 86.
In October 2019, the Daily Nation reported that Ruto's acquisition of a 900-acre piece of land of another former vice president, Joseph Murumbi, haunted Ruto because he had been involved in the irregular acquisition of the land. In the same month, Ruto claimed that the articles were persistent, and obviously sponsored fake news. Later that month, a human rights lobby activist, Trusted Society of Human Rights Alliance, called for an investigation into the mysterious acquisition of a 900-acre piece of land that formerly belonged to former vice-president Murumbi. According to the allegations, Murumbi had been involved in a dispute over loan defaults with a state corporation, AFC, against the land that was pledged as a security for the loan. It is alleged that Murumbi defaulted the loan and AFC took over ownership of the land that was eventually sold to Ruto after he paid off the loan owed to the state corporation.
Ruto has been widely and repeatedly linked to the assassination of Jacob Juma by several media, activists, politicians, opposition figures in Kenya, including Jacob Juma himself. Jacob Juma was a wealthy businessman who became a fierce government critic and anti-corruption crusader who became known for posting targeted cryptic tweets against Ruto and the Jubilee government months before he was assassinated in Nairobi. In December 2015, Jacob Juma, in his tweets, claimed Ruto was obsessed with killing him. In May 2016, Jacob Juma was shot dead along Ngong Road. In the same month, during the burial of Jacob Juma, a former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo and previously a close ally of Ruto claimed Jacob Juma had physically assaulted Ruto by slapping him for having a sour relationship over unspecified reasons. Jirongo urged police to investigate the assassination based on the assault. Later in the month, Ruto threatened to sue Jirongo for linking him to the assassination. Jirongo claimed that he and another former minister, Chris Okemo, were personally involved in paying the murdered government critic university's tuition fees, and that he knew the matter surrounding the controversy all too well. According to Jirongo, the same assassins were involved in the murder of Meshack Yebei, another murdered prospective defence witness in the ICC trial against Ruto.
In June 2016, the Canadian newspaper Financial Post and the Kenyan newspaper The Standard both reported that Jacob Juma was the director of a Canadian company (Pacific Wildcat) whose license to explore $2 billion worth of minerals in Kwale county in Kenya was cancelled just after the Jubilee government took over. This cancellation led Jacob Juma to call a press conference where he claimed that the then Mining Minister Najib Balala was demanding a bribe to have the cancelled license re-issued to the company. This cancellation led Jacob Juma into personal financial ruin, and it was reported he was routinely borrowing money. He became a fierce government critic after he felt short-changed out of the mining license that eventually caused his company to lose money. According to a different company official of the same Canadian company, Ruto and Balala demanded transfer of the mining company's license to a new company with the Kenyan government to receive a 50% stake in the new company for free. This eventually led Jacob Juma to become fiercely critical of Ruto and the Jubilee government in tweets, media interviews, court filings, and political correspondence with opposition figures as well as diplomatic missions in Kenya. It later emerged Jacob Juma had promised the board of the Canadian company Pacific Wildcat that he would fight bureaucratic delays as well as the corruption that would stand in the way of getting the mining license. A high court ruling in Kenya found that the Mining minister was right to cancel the license of the Canadian company.
In October 2016, photojournalist Boniface Mwangi also linked Ruto to the assassination. Ruto sued him for defamation. According to Ruto's lawyer, the claims by the activist had lowered Ruto's standing among Kenya's "high thinking" people.
In December 2016, one of the personnel from Ruto's office was reported to also link Ruto to the assassination by delivering a letter to Mwangi to help with his defamation case against Ruto by providing details of the murder by persons in Ruto's office. In the same month, it was reported that the personnel was to be charged in court for extortion. An investigating officer claimed that the arrested personnel from Ruto's office claimed that another personnel in Ruto's office called Rono had credible information that Activist Mwangi could be killed in a stage-managed road accident. The arrested personnel from Ruto's office was later sent for mental check-up after he further claimed that he was coached to lie about his claims of Jacob Juma's murder by Mwangi.
In February 2017, it was reported that Mwangi claimed Ruto wanted him dead like he killed Jacob Juma.
In December 2010, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced that he was seeking the summons of six people, including Ruto, over their involvement in the 2007–8 electoral violence. The ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber subsequently issued a summons for Ruto at the prosecutor's request. Ruto was accused of planning and organizing crimes against supporters of President Kibaki's Party of National Unity. He was charged with three counts of crimes against humanity, one for murder, one for the forcible transfer of population, and one for persecution. On 23 January 2012, the ICC confirmed the charges against Ruto and Joshua Sang, in a case that also involved Uhuru Kenyatta, Francis Muthaura, Henry Kosgey and Major General Mohammed Hussein Ali. Ruto told the US government that the Kiambaa church fire on 1 January 2008 after the 2007 general election was accidental. In 2009 the Waki Commission report stated that "the incident which captured the attention of both Kenyans and the world was a deliberate burning of live people, mostly Kikuyu women, and children huddled together in a church" in Kiambaa on 1 January 2008. In April 2016, the International Criminal Court abandoned the prosecution of Ruto.
On 28 July 2017, Ruto's home was targeted by at least one attacker armed with a machete, and the police officer on duty guarding the residence was injured. During the time of the attack, he and his family were not at the compound as he had left hours earlier for a campaign rally in Kitale. There were reports of gunfire and several security sources said the attack was staged by multiple people. Police initially thought there were a few attackers because the attacker used different firearms. Around 48 hours later, Kenya Police chief Joseph Boinnet announced that the attacker had been shot dead and the situation was under control.
Ruto is married to Rachel Chebet. They first lived in Dagoretti, where they had their first child. They were married in 1991 at the Africa Inland Church. They currently have six children.
Ruto is an evangelical Christian and a member of the Africa Inland Church.
Ruto owns a chicken farm in his home village of Sugoi, which was originally inspired by his stint as a chicken hawker on the Nairobi-Eldoret-Malaba highway. Ruto and his wife built a chapel in their compound at their residence in the Karen suburb of Nairobi.