NAIROBI —
William Ruto pledged to work for
all Kenyans after he was sworn in as president at a pomp-filled ceremony on
Tuesday, five weeks after his narrow victory in a bitterly-fought but largely
peaceful election.
اضافة اعلان
Tens of thousands of people joined regional heads of
state at a packed 60,000-seat stadium in
Nairobi to watch him take the oath of
office, with many spectators clad in the bright yellow of Ruto’s party,
cheering loudly and waving Kenyan flags.
“I will work with
all Kenyans irrespective of who they voted for,” the 55-year-old said in his
inauguration speech, vowing to unite the polarized nation and announcing a
series of measures to tackle its economic woes.
“In this process we have demonstrated the maturity
of our democracy, the robustness of our institutions and the resilience of the
Kenyan people.”
The rags-to-riches businessman described his
swearing-in as Kenya’s fifth post-independence president as a “moment like no
other,” adding: “Today, I want to thank God, because a village boy has become
the president of Kenya.”
A notoriously ambitious politician who has been
deputy president since 2013, Ruto beat his rival Raila Odinga — who had the
backing of now former president Uhuru Kenyatta — by less than two percentage
points in the August 9 poll.
But the Supreme Court on September 5 unanimously
upheld his victory, dismissing his opponents’ claims of fraud and
mismanagement.
‘Political maturity’
African Union Commission
chair
Moussa Faki Mahamat, who was at the ceremony, hailed the peaceful
transfer of power in a post on Twitter, saying it was “an enduring feature of
the country’s political maturity”.
Ruto’s rise has been closely watched by the
international community, which looks to Kenya as a reliable and stable
democracy in a turbulent region.
Foreign allies and independent observers praised the
conduct of the vote, which was mostly free of the violence that has marred past
elections in the country of 50 million people.
Before Tuesday’s ceremony began, several people were
injured as crowds tried to force their way into the stadium. Television footage
showed dozens of people falling on top of one other in a crush at one entrance
gate.
Ruto, who once sold chickens on the roadside in what
is now his Rift Valley stronghold, had painted the election as a battle between
ordinary “hustlers” and the elite Kenyatta and Odinga “dynasties” that had
dominated Kenyan politics for decades.
But he faces a daunting task ahead to unite the
country after a bruising and divisive election campaign, and ease the hardship
of ordinary Kenyans who are struggling to make ends meet as prices for basic
goods soar.
In his speech, Ruto pledged to stem the rising tide
of youth unemployment, provide resources to help ease those confronted by
punishing drought, and stabilize Kenya’s public finances — which are creaking
under the weight of a $70-billion debt mountain.
Ruto said he would establish a 50-billion-shilling
($415-million) “hustler fund” to provide loans to small enterprises to help
drive growth, while making Kenya more business-friendly.
Kenyatta, who in a stunning turn of events reached a
pact with his longtime rival Odinga in 2018 and banished his deputy Ruto to the
sidelines, had promised a smooth transfer of power.
But the 60-year-old had pointedly failed to publicly
congratulate his successor for several weeks, finally shaking Ruto’s hand at a
meeting at the presidential residence on Monday.
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