President William Ruto presides over a government defined by contradiction. It is an administration that speaks fluently about reform and development, yet governs in ways that deepen poverty, strain constitutional order, and normalize extremes that Kenya cannot afford. The paradox of this presidency is no longer theoretical, it is now lived daily by ordinary citizens.

To be fair, the Ruto government has pursued visible action. Infrastructure projects have continued, digital platforms expanded, and Kenya’s international economic engagements aggressively marketed. The language of efficiency, productivity, and reform has dominated official communication. For a country long frustrated by inertia, this sense of motion initially inspired hope.

But motion without direction can still lead off a cliff.

At the heart of the public anger lies economic policy that punishes the poor while shielding power. Over-taxation has become the default solution to every fiscal challenge. New levies and increased deductions have targeted workers, small traders, and low-income households already struggling with rising food prices, rent, fuel, and transport costs. Instead of expanding the tax base through job creation and industrial growth, the state has chosen the easier path, squeezing the same citizens harder, until survival itself becomes a daily negotiation.

Equally troubling is the absence of a coherent strategy to expand the domestic job market. Young people graduate into unemployment, informal work, or despair. Small and medium enterprises, historically Kenya’s largest employers, face hostile tax regimes, regulatory fatigue, and limited access to affordable credit. The promise of a hustler economy rings hollow when hustling itself is taxed into extinction.

In a deeply ironic twist, the government has increasingly framed labor export and migration as success stories. While remittances are celebrated, the long-term cost of brain drain is quietly ignored. Doctors, engineers, teachers, nurses, and skilled artisans are encouraged, implicitly and sometimes explicitly, to seek dignity and opportunity abroad. A nation cannot outsource its future and call it development. When the most capable citizens leave, institutions weaken, innovation stalls, and inequality hardens.

This economic pressure exists alongside disturbing governance excesses. Allegations of public land seizures without parliamentary approval, executive decisions made without transparent legislative scrutiny, and a growing culture of rule by directive point to contempt for constitutional checks and balances. Parliament appears sidelined when oversight becomes inconvenient.

More alarming still is the normalization of state violence. Protesters have been met with bullets instead of dialogue. Police killings have been justified as necessary force. Rhetoric from the top has, at times, emboldened security agencies to treat dissent as criminality. No economic agenda, however ambitious, justifies the killing of citizens. The Constitution does not permit development at gunpoint.

Kenya has seen this pattern before, partial progress used to excuse repression, efficiency weaponized against freedom, and economic pain imposed in the name of future gains that never arrive for the majority. Such leadership does not fail outright; it corrodes slowly, leaving behind infrastructure, but also trauma, mistrust, and weakened institutions.

President Ruto still has a choice. He can ease the tax burden on the poor, prioritize domestic job creation, retain talent, respect Parliament, restrain security forces, and prove that development and dignity can coexist. Or he can continue down a path where the poor pay the price, talent is exported, dissent is crushed, and success is measured only in spreadsheets and speeches.

A nation cannot be taxed into prosperity, nor can it be built by exporting its best minds. Progress that burns its people is not progress at all.

Disclaimer

This editorial represents the opinion and analysis of The Diaspora Times. It does not allege criminal guilt but raises governance, economic justice, constitutional, and human-rights concerns based on publicly observable policies, statements, and patterns. Readers are encouraged to engage critically and consult diverse sources.