The costly state visit

Here we go again.

More taxpayer money being squandered in the name of diplomacy and leadership. While President Ruto and the thirty stooges fly on a 200 million shilling private jet, paid for by the taxpayers, KRA is working overtime bombarding the common man with emails for filing tax returns before June.

Never mind that hundreds of millions were spent in five days, ferrying non-essential personnel, family members and ‘comedians’ to the US for a state visit. 30 people! Who are they and why was their presence on this trip so important? Before we proceed on any national affairs we would like a list of all persons that travelled and a full report on their functions and roles as members of the delegation to America.

This is all it takes to achieve change. Accountability. The moment the President and civil servants are mandated to present the people with a report listing all their goals, accomplishments and comprehensive budget breakdown is the day we see a significant decrease in these unnecessary international trips. If regular employees are required to do so when spending company money then why can’t we demand the same within the government?

We want to know which flight they took, what seat they sat on, what meals were charged to the government and most importantly what they achieved in their purpose for that particular trip. We are simply tired of being treated like fools. I mean our situation has gotten so bad that instead of this state trip getting the recognition it deserves, it was treated like a mockery by the international media.

Every news media covered the expense of the jet and Ruto’s habit of being a frequent flyer, spending more time overseas than he does at home.

None hit the nail on the coffin harder than Palki Sharma of Firstpost, an online news channel in India. Palki did a deep dive on Ruto’s tax policies since assuming office while covering the expensive trip to America. She left Kenyans humbled with the quote “If it moves, Ruto taxes it.” That right there should be a summary of the entire Ruto presidency. A line that will live in infamy for all Kenyan voters.

Ruto is the regret we see in the mirror everyday. It’s the face tattoo we did because it was cool, it’s the pink hair we dyed because we were daring, Ruto is that bad choice we made ‘just because’. Every day, news and social media posts of him haunt us like the regrettable reflection in the mirror. He reminds us of the consequences of making a decision that we did not think through.

Just when we thought we were over the whole fiasco when Ruto got on the 200 million private jet to come back home, here came more. Side note: somebody has to take social media and microphones from the first family of Kenya. At times, the things they say are so socially awkward that we get embarrassed on their behalf. Case and point, the Ruto post on Monday morning on his X (Twitter) page.

“Fellow Kenyans, I have noted concerns on my mode of transport to USA. As a responsible steward of public resources and in keeping with my determination for us to live within our means and that I should lead from the front in so doing, the cost was less than travelling on KQ.”

I spent the whole day believing it was a tweet from a parody account as I did not want to believe that our President would say something so… If there was ever a moment when I could insert a facepalm emoji in a news bit, this would be it. The post was filled with inaccuracies both grammatical and presidential. Surely, Sir can you let somebody else write these posts? At least then someone will write these posts like their job depended on it.

The social media post has been picked up once again by international news organisations to continue the mockery of our leadership. What an embarrassment!