The Kingdom of Lies: How Kenya’s Political Class Turned Deception Into Policy And Propaganda Into Power

Once upon a time in Kenya, leadership was supposed to be about service to the people. That dream now lies buried under a mountain of lies, deceit, and propaganda. It was the Jubilee administration under Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto that began this spiral into the abyss, and now, under Ruto’s reign, we are hurtling ever faster toward an era where truth has no home, and the consequences are devastating.

“A lie has many variations, the truth none,” an ancient African proverb says. Yet, it seems our leaders decided that the variations are what will save them from accountability. Day in, day out, we hear half-truths, twisted facts, and outright fabrications passed off as policy. They claim to care for the people, but what they truly care for is power and wealth. The Jubilee administration mastered the art of using fake news, not as a countermeasure to opposition rhetoric, but as an official government strategy.

Kenya, under the leadership of Uhuru and Ruto, has become a pariah state. Once heralded as a beacon of hope in East Africa, we are now the subject of ridicule. How can we expect respect when our government routinely feeds its people lies and expects us to swallow them like fools? The shame runs deep. When the world looks at Kenya, it sees a nation governed by kleptocrats and run by spin doctors who wouldn’t recognize the truth if it hit them in the face.

We were promised modern infrastructure, a thriving economy, jobs for our youth, affordable healthcare, and accessible education. What we got instead were grand announcements, most of which were lies. Remember the Jubilee government’s claim that they had built “10,000 kilometers of roads?” They paraded this as an achievement, a symbol of progress. Fact-check: the actual number? Barely half that. But this government was never about actual achievements; it was about what it could convince us it had done.

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“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” says another African proverb. But under this regime, the only ones going far are the politicians, and they are going alone—leaving the rest of us in the dust, scrambling for the crumbs they throw our way. The citizens are left to suffer under inflated taxes, with no social services to show for it. The lies they tell us about “progress” are nothing but a smoke screen for their plundering of public resources.

The Uhuru-Ruto legacy can best be described as a house of cards, built on propaganda, intimidation, and smoke-filled rooms. Their tactic was simple: discredit any citizen raising genuine concerns by labeling them an “enemy of progress.” Question the ballooning debt? You were “against development.” Criticize their looting of public coffers? You were labeled as “sponsored by the opposition.” And the pattern continues with Ruto. This is governance by intimidation.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that we, the citizens, have been conditioned to accept these lies. “When the fool speaks, the wise man listens,” a Somali proverb warns. But in Kenya, it seems the fools are the ones we’ve allowed to lead. The people can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction. The government has blurred the lines so thoroughly that every statement they make is met with doubt and derision.

The dire consequences of living in a state of perpetual lies are already evident. A government that lies cannot be trusted to deliver even the most basic of services. How many lives have been lost because of the lies told about healthcare? They claimed to have upgraded hospitals, yet countless Kenyans die in poorly equipped facilities. Remember when they told us that they had built a modern healthcare system under the Managed Equipment Services (MES) project? Billions were spent, yet our hospitals remain in disrepair, and the equipment? Rusting away, unused.

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children,” says an African proverb. Yet, this government is robbing our children of their future. They lie about economic growth, about jobs, about opportunities for the youth. But what are the facts? Over 5 million unemployed youths are roaming the streets with nothing but shattered dreams. And while they lie to us about employment statistics, they are busy signing deals with foreign corporations, allowing them to exploit our resources, leaving nothing for future generations.

At the helm of this broken regime stands William Ruto, a man whose presidency is built on a foundation of deceit. Ruto loves to paint himself as the “Hustler,” the champion of the downtrodden. But let’s be honest. This is a man who, during his time in government, oversaw some of the most egregious looting sprees in Kenya’s history. “Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped,” goes another African saying. And Kenya’s slip began with the Jubilee regime’s decision to prioritize lies over truth, propaganda over transparency.

The government is so afraid of the truth that it resorts to propaganda at every turn. When it became clear that the SHIF (Social Health Insurance Fund) was just another scheme to siphon money from Kenyans, what did they do? They labeled the critics as “enemies of progress.” When the truth about the over-bloated JKIA modernization project came to light, they said it was “fake news.” This tactic is repeated, over and over, like a broken record.

But the worst lie, the most dangerous one of all, is the lie they tell themselves: that they can keep this house of cards standing. The consequences of their deceit will be dire. Trust in government is eroding faster than ever. We have become a society of skeptics, where every government announcement is met with scorn, every policy is seen as a con. Without trust, the social contract between the governed and the government breaks down, and when that happens, chaos ensues.

“A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity,” says another wise African proverb. The international community has noticed. Kenya’s reputation is in tatters. Our leaders travel abroad to beg for loans, but they are met with suspicion and skepticism. Investors are wary of pouring money into a country whose leaders cannot be trusted to tell the truth. The pariah status we have acquired is entirely self-inflicted, a product of the endless lies we have allowed to fester.

What will become of us if this continues? Will we become a nation of liars, just like our leaders? Will the lies become so ingrained in our national character that we can no longer see the truth even when it stares us in the face? The time has come for Kenyans to rise and demand better. “The truth is like a baobab tree; one person’s arms cannot encompass it,” goes an African proverb. We must stand together, as a united people, and embrace the truth, no matter how painful it is.

This government fears the truth because the truth will expose their failures, their corruption, their incompetence. But they cannot hide from it forever. The lies will eventually collapse under their own weight. And when they do, it will be the people who will have the last word. The only question is, how long will we allow them to continue? How many more lies will we swallow before we say, “Enough!”?

In the end, a government that lies to its people is a government that has lost its right to govern. We must not be afraid to remove such a government by whatever means necessary. Let the lies stop here.

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