I watched Citizen TV, NTV, KTN and even KBC cover President William Ruto’s Ukambani tour. I watched every angle, every edited clip, every cheering crowd they packaged so perfectly for the evening bulletin. But I wasn’t fooled. I picked up my phone and called classmates from the region people who actually live there, people who know the true pulse of the ground.
What they told me was shocking.
NGAO officers are now glorified campaign marshals state machinery turned into political errand boys. After failing to unite the country, after failing to serve the people, Ruto has returned to his oldest talent: selling lies and illusions, just like in 2022. He thinks Kenyans forget fast. He thinks our memories expire like campaign promises.
Ruto’s grip on information is no accident.
Critical media especially the Standard are branded fake, disloyal, foreign agents, or enemies of “progress.” Why? Because to win, Ruto must dominate the message. He must script reality. He must drown out truth. Control information, control perception, control the country that’s the formula.
And Citizen TV? They will show you how Ruto cracks jokes, how he double-speaks with confidence, how crowds laugh and clap not to warn us, but to normalize it. They’ll show the turnout, the flags, the dances. What they won’t show is the line of public school buses forced to ferry paid crowds. They won’t show the teachers instructed to assemble pupils at dawn. They won’t show the residents who were told: “Kuja, kuna kitu kidogo.”
They won’t show the quiet queues behind the venue men and women waiting for the KSh1,000 handout from state agents.
They won’t say that the mobilisation money starts as KSh5,000 from State House, but by the time it reaches the ground it has been eaten three times over, leaving people with KSh1,000… or KSh500 in the more remote areas. That’s the real logistics of these “massive turnouts.”
And now I understand how the news we consume gets cooked, filtered, polished, and delivered as state-approved truth. The purpose is simple: make Kenyans believe Ruto is loved, wanted, celebrated when the ground is boiling with frustration.
But here’s the beauty:
People are not fools.
The United Opposition told them, “Take the money. It’s yours. Eat it without guilt.” And they are doing exactly that but they’re not mistaking handouts for leadership. They’re not confusing staged cheers for genuine hope. They are tired of lies, tired of manipulation, tired of a president who thinks cleverness is the same as wisdom.
So let Ruto continue rehearsing his brilliance.
Let him believe he can fool an entire nation twice.
Let him think he can buy loyalty with pocket change while the country bleeds.
Because 2027 is coming, and it will remind him of a truth he has forgotten:
Kenyans know the difference between truth and propaganda.
They know the difference between leadership and theatrics.
They know exactly what they lived through after 2022 and they will not repeat that mistake.
Ruto can rewrite the news, but he cannot rewrite the ground.
The ground is awake.
And the ground remembers.
being on muslim twitter and randomly seeing someone ask for duas for their mom or grandpa or sibling is actually so intimate like do we realise how crazy it is to ask strangers to pray for someone you love and we actually do it like thats real community
Journalist Saleh Al-Jafarawi was kidnapped by Israeli backed gangs in Gaza City they fired 7 bullets and killed him while his only weapon was his camera.
He was smeared and targeted for two years during the genocide.
May his memory be blessed.
Please listen to and share his beautiful recitation of the Qur’an, as it may be counted as a sadaqah for him
May Allah grant him the highest level of Jannah
Survived two years of genocide. Spent every minute covering Israel's barbarity for the world to see. Poured his heart out to the world when everything seemed too overbearing. Did everything he could to make the children and the next generation around him feel safe.
Today, brave journalist Saleh Al-Jaafarawi from Gaza was gunned down in cold blood by members of one of the crime syndicates Israel has been funding, training and supplying.
Unbearable, unfathomable loss.