Opinion
Ruto Is Moi's Shadow: The Dictator's Relic Wearing a Hustler's Mask
A polemic on continuity between the Moi and Ruto governments, and a call to organise beyond a single administration.
In this hour of national crisis, when the air is heavy with teargas and the streets echo with the cries of a betrayed generation, let us call things by their rightful names. President William Ruto is not the face of a new Kenya; he is the ghost of an old tyranny. He is not a symbol of progress but a living relic of the dictatorship we fought to overthrow. He is a shadow of Daniel arap Moi, recycled and rebranded, but carrying the same poison, the same repressive DNA, the same comprador allegiance.
Ruto's rise to power was wrapped in hustler rhetoric, a cunning attempt to present himself as a man of the people. But this narrative is a lie. He is not a hustler; he is a predator dressed as prey. He is not a victim of the system; he is its loyal product. Ruto cut his political teeth in the Youth for KANU 1992, a violent vigilante formation used by the Moi regime to intimidate, brutalise, and silence multiparty democracy. From that moment, his loyalties were clear: not to the people, but to power. Not to justice, but to control. Not to liberation, but to exploitation.
Ruto's so-called “bottom-up” agenda has turned out to be top-down repression. His tax regime crushes the poor while shielding the rich. His economic model serves international finance capital, not the needs of Kenyans. His political strategy is built not on consensus but coercion; just like his mentor, Moi. Where Moi used detention and torture, Ruto uses abductions and police bullets. Where Moi co-opted Parliament with bribes, Ruto does the same with budget slots and ethnic patronage. Where Moi silenced the radical left through surveillance and assassinations, Ruto criminalises organised revolutionaries and targets ideological institutions like the Communist Party Marxist Kenya.
Under Ruto's reign, repression is normalised and constitutionalism is weaponised. Protests are criminalised. Activists are abducted. Dissent is demonised. This is not democracy; it is neocolonial fascism in digital disguise. The same hands that claim to protect the constitution are signing pacts with AFRICOM generals and hosting foreign troops on our soil. The same regime that claims sovereignty hands over our economy to the IMF and surrenders our policy sovereignty to the World Bank.
This is not national leadership. It is neocolonial management.
And so, let us ask the question plainly: what separates Ruto from Moi? Only the tools. The logic remains the same. Moi used analog brutality; Ruto uses biometric surveillance. Moi ruled through fear; Ruto rules through manufactured hope and militarised betrayal. The masses are still exploited. The youth are still jobless. Women are still violated by a patriarchal state. Workers are still taxed into starvation. And peasants remain dispossessed.
The path forward is not to reform Ruto. It is to reject him; and the system that produced him.
Ruto is not the problem alone. He is the symptom of a much deeper disease: a system that is semi-feudal, neocolonial, and comprador in nature. A system where land is hoarded by a few dynasties while millions remain squatters. A system where the IMF dictates policy and foreign embassies control security priorities. A system where politicians serve the interests of multinational corporations, not the Kenyan people.
This is not accidental. It is structural. It is the logical outcome of a state that has never broken from colonialism; only localised it. From Kenyatta to Moi, from Kibaki to Ruto, the reins of power have remained in the hands of a comprador elite. They sing independence by day and sell out the country by night. They speak of sovereignty but build AFRICOM bases. They weep about debt while accepting poisonous loans. They promise freedom while detaining comrades in Kamiti.
That is why the people's rage is rising. That is why the youth are taking to the streets. That is why peasants are resisting eviction and workers are demanding justice. Because the truth is now undeniable: Ruto is not the future. He is the past pretending to be progress. He is Moi in hustler clothing. He is dictatorship in digital disguise.
But history teaches us this: when the people rise, no tyranny can stand. When the oppressed unite with clarity and organisation, even the mightiest state machinery trembles. And so, we say this without fear: the hour of reckoning is here. The Kenyan people are standing at the gates of history once more. The question is not whether Ruto should go; the question is whether we are ready to replace this decaying system with a new one, built by and for the working class.
This is the task of our generation. This is the mission of the Communist Party Marxist Kenya. We are not a party of rhetoric. We are not funded by imperialist donors or hosted in luxury hotels. We are a revolutionary party rooted in the streets, the villages, the campuses, the factories, and the estates. We are building People's Assemblies. We are conducting social investigation and class analysis. We are educating Red Cells through the Pio Gama Pinto Ideological School. We are mobilising self-defence against abductions. We are advancing the line of dual power; where the people govern themselves outside the bourgeois state.
This is the only path forward: not protest for protest's sake, but protest with purpose, rebellion with organisation, and resistance with a revolutionary programme. Let us move from the streets to strategy. From outrage to organisation. From the cry of pain to the slogan of power.
Let the youth form People's Councils in every estate. Let the women rise to build the Revolutionary Women's League. Let the peasants seize the banner of land justice. Let workers build Red Unions that break from sellout leadership. Let us all; across tribes, religions, and regions; unite under the red banner of anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, revolutionary struggle.
The days of fake independence are numbered. The people are awakening. And once the people are awake, no relic of dictatorship can survive. Just as Moi was removed, so too will Ruto fall. But this time, we shall not stop at removing the man. We shall destroy the entire machine of oppression; and build a new Kenya, free from foreign domination, land monopoly, and class exploitation.
To the poor, we say: Ruto is not your saviour. He is your class enemy. To the youth: your hope does not lie in government jobs, but in revolutionary struggle. To the women: the system will not protect you; it must be overthrown. To the workers: your sweat will only be free when the means of production are in your hands. And to the peasantry: the land is yours; take it!
Ruto is a relic. The revolution is the future. And the Communist Party Marxist Kenya will march with the people until victory.