NAIROBI, Kenya- President William Ruto appears to have found a temporary lifeline in football after months of unrelenting pressure from Gen Z.
The Harambee Stars’ run in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) has provided him with a rare opportunity to stand on a stage where the cheers drown out the jeers.
The President has quickly seized the moment. He has positioned himself at the centre of the team’s success, pledging monetary gifts to players and promising them houses under the affordable housing program.
It is a clever political move — associating himself with the joy of victory and the pride of a nation united behind its football team.
But will football be enough to restore his image?
The scars of 2024 are still raw, as at least 60 young people died in June.
More than 50 young Kenyans were also killed in June and July during protests against his administration.
At least 43 of them died on July 7, many shot dead in the streets. Others were abducted, tortured, or left nursing lifelong injuries.
The 2024 Finance Bill, which triggered the outrage, was eventually dropped, but the memories of bloodied pavements and tear gas-filled skies will not be erased by a single football tournament.
Parliament itself was breached during the peak of the protests, an unprecedented moment in Kenya’s political history that showed just how deep public anger had cut.
And the discontent has not gone away. In fact, it has only widened. Ruto now faces not just youth-led movements at home but also a newly emboldened political opposition.
His former deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, has reinvented himself as the face of resistance, both in Kenya and abroad.
From his six-week stay in the United States, Gachagua made headlines with sharp criticisms of the government he once served in, emerging as the leader of the opposition and positioning himself as Ruto’s fiercest rival.
The irony is striking. Ruto, once seen as the master strategist of hustler politics, is now the one fighting to reclaim the narrative.
His reliance on football victories as a political balm may buy him applause in the short term, but it cannot silence the cries of families who lost children in protests, nor can it answer the economic frustrations weighing on millions of Kenyans.
The Harambee Stars may indeed march forward and conquer the continent.
Their victories may unite Kenyans, however briefly, across political and social divides.
The players’ grit and determination have already offered a glimpse of what is possible when focus replaces division.
Football has given Ruto an olive branch. Whether it becomes a turning point or just a fleeting distraction depends on what he does when the final whistle blows.
