By David Odhiambo, UK Correspondent
The Diaspora Times

In the heart of Africa’s Great Lakes region, history has an uncanny habit of repeating itself; only the actors change. The rise of President William Ruto in Kenya is increasingly drawing comparisons to one of the continent’s most flamboyant and feared despots, Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Though separated by geography and generation, the parallels are as chilling as they are instructive.

Mobutu rose to power in the 1960s amid the chaos of Congo’s post-independence disillusionment, his rhetoric populist, his demeanor military, his promises intoxicating. Much like Ruto’s “Hustler Nation” gospel, Mobutu presented himself as a man of the people, an outsider come to cleanse the elite’s rot. But soon, the populism gave way to patrimonialism, and the hope he promised gave rise to hollowed institutions.

Ruto’s journey followed a similar arc. Riding a wave of resentment against dynastic politics, he branded himself a champion of the common mwananchi, invoking scripture with fluency and speaking the language of suffering. Yet within months of taking power, his image began to mirror not the downtrodden hustler but the crowned hustler-king, surrounded by opulence, guarded by propaganda, and backed by clergy willing to trade pulpits for power.

Mobutu declared himself “the all-powerful, the all-knowing,” adorning public spaces with portraits of his leopard-skin-capped visage. Today, Ruto’s image floods state media, church walls, government events, and digital screens, a new type of omnipresence cultivated by political optics teams and sycophantic bureaucrats. In both cases, the presidency becomes more than a political office—it morphs into a divine ordination, where disagreement is heresy.

Mobutu’s rule was synonymous with kleptocracy, siphoning billions into European vaults while hospitals decayed and schools rotted. In Ruto’s Kenya, the Auditor General’s reports raise similar alarms. Billions disappear under the guise of fertilizer subsidies, road tenders, and restructuring initiatives. The president’s allies—many with corruption cases trailing behind them—now occupy the highest offices, rewarded not for merit but for allegiance. Mobutu looted with flamboyance, Ruto’s regime does so under a digital veil of accountability dashboards and performance contracts, while wananchi queue for unga.

Mobutu maintained control through the politics of ethnic fragmentation, dividing to rule, igniting tribal suspicions to extinguish national unity. Ruto’s appointments reflect a tilt toward the Rift Valley, alienating regions once central to his campaign machinery. In the process, Kenya’s fragile cohesion now teeters, tribal identity resurfaces, and loyalty is measured by proximity to State House, not fidelity to the constitution.

And when the mask of civility slips, force emerges. Mobutu’s guards silenced critics, intimidated rivals, and killed dissent. In Kenya, police deployed during the July 2023 and July 2024 protests acted with the same old brutality, firing live bullets at unarmed Gen Z youth. The state no longer fears backlash, for the people have been pacified by sermons, bribes, or threats.

Mobutu died in exile, his wealth meaningless, his name scorned by a nation he betrayed. His ghost, however, is restless. And in Nairobi, it finds a willing host. Ruto, once the barefoot hustler, now dons the regalia of power, defended by bishops, feared by critics, and adored by loyalists whose loyalty is bought, not earned.

In a land where memory is short and institutions weaker than men, the Mobutu playbook is being revised—not in French, but in Swahili and English, laced with prayer, and masked as reform. The question is not whether Ruto will become Mobutu, but whether Kenyans will allow it.

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