Vietnam Gas Boss was on point: Ruto must put off the mic and put on the power

 A message that has been going around on social media authored by Mr. Doanh Chau, President of Vietnam Gas makes very sobering reading. Having recently met with both President William Ruto and the Prime Cabinet Secretary, Musalia Mudavadi, Mr. Chau makes observations that have immense sense to any right-thinking Kenyan and African. His readers can reasonably deduce that Mr. Chau’s company may have received some kind of expression of interest from President Ruto and his senior officials about investing in Kenya.

The conversations revolved around energy and about Kenya’s future— investment, infrastructure and public housing. The very honest summation of the Vietnamese’s impression of the two gentlemen, which he referred to as the “painful truth” was clear. He observed that the ideas being fronted by the Kenya Kwanza Government are very lofty and good. However, they are just that. Ideas. In his words, “there is no serious execution culture”.

He goes ahead to identify the core reasons why most serious foreign investors are not convinced that investing in Kenya worth their while. Listen to him: “Kenya’s real problem is not a lack of money or talent. It’s the absence of long-term vision and the dominance of short-term gain. Leaders talk big, but systems don’t move. They wait for outsiders to bring business, rather than build an environment for it.”

Mr. Chau goes on to cite electricity as the biggest indicator of this malaise before quoting the data. Vietnam, with a population of 100 million people has access to more than 70 giga watts of power, while Kenya with roughly half that population has access to just four giga watts. Rhetoric about energy by our officialdom is that Kenya generates mostly clean energy – geothermal and hydro – which is true. Also, that Kenya has achieved self-sufficiency in its electrical energy needs. Which, depending on who you ask, is evidently is not true. It would be expected that power, which is primarily generated from natural, therefore, free sources, would be affordable and, therefore, a strong justification for investors to locate their manufacturing plants here.

President Ruto is wont to remind anybody who cares to listen about his academic qualifications, claiming to have earned a Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi. Amazingly, he appears to be the list conscious of the fact that he is leading a country that is in economic stagnation despite having one of the best educated populations in Africa. Ironically, he has been at the forefront of the quest to “export” Kenya’s human capital. This is a president who inherited a very well-crafted national aspiration in the form of Vision 2030. One would expect him to lead from the front, and be seen to be doing so,  its implementation.

The most visible role that Kenyans have recently seen their President play has been that of building the so-called broad-based government with the objective of cementing his power base. The focus is to be re-elected to the same office in 2027. The question then becomes: What is President Ruto going to do differently in his second term? To many observers keen to see Kenya’s true potential becoming real, Ruto’s record over the last two-and-a-half years is hardly inspiring. Too much time has been wasted on politicking while a huge amount of national wealth may have already disappeared into private pockets of Kenya Kanza politicians.

The state of the country’s capital city is a living testament of how not to govern a modern city. Despite collecting huge amounts of taxes, services such as garbage collection and urban road maintenance are non-existent. The City’s Governors cannot be called out for these failures. As Mr. Mr. Chau notes in his non-nonsense write up: “Tourism is another missed opportunity. Safari bookings require 90-minute check-ins at park gates—even with reservations. After 9:00 PM, everything closes. There’s nothing for visitors to experience or spend on beyond a Masai market that’s essentially a souvenir stand.

“President Ruto wants to build public housing, but investors are scared off by petty corruption, and legal instability. There are no credible incentives, no serious risk guarantees. In short, no real initiative to make it happen.”

If a truly concerned Kenyan is to make a similar observation as this foreign official has made, politicians would quickly label them unpatriotic and at worst a saboteur. A case pending in court is pegged on claims that the Kenyan Government borrows money and spends it without Parliament’s approval. It is testament that the country’s leadership is focused on short-term goals and does not have true and genuine idea of where we are headed as a country.

A vision such as our Head of State appears to have - being elected for another five years, only confirms what foreigners, who can clearly see the immense potential that we have as a country, are urging us is to literally wake up. Mr. Chau’s closing sentence could not have captured this urgency more appropriately: “If Kenya and much of Africa want a real economic future, they must turn off the microphone—and turn on the power.”

Anthony Mugo is a senior communication and development consultant: ammugo2003@gmail.com

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