Kenyans have memeified the dusty Ruiru town after Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria appeared to suggest that goods in Ruiru are much cheaper and affordable than in other parts of the country.
While appearing on a charged live session on Citizen TV on Wednesday night, CS Kuria, infamous for his outbursts and penchant for hurling epithets, dismissed news anchor Sam Gituku’s proof that cooking oil prices have not dropped by as much as he insisted. Citizen TV was forced to go to a supermarket in Eldoret to show that the Cabinet Secretary was not right in his statement.
Cornered, a testy Kuria attempted to shoot down the facts, telling the news panel that they should now go to Ruiru and do a similar survey, saying, “Let’s go now to Ruiru, send a crew there, we are here for two hours, what’s the hurry for? Si uende Ruiru…”
Ruiru is a municipality and sub-county in Kiambu County, Kenya.
Kuria’s not-surprising suggestion immediately triggered the internet, with many people finding it hard to marry the absurdity of his assertions with the national cost of living facts.
Immediately, memes started flying out, with many people now sarcastically viewing Ruiru as the land of Milk and Honey, while others jocularly suggesting that they were now planning to move to Ruiru as life was obviously cheaper there and, if the CS was anything to go by, things were clearly more affordable.
On the microblogging site X (formerly Twitter), Ruiru is currently the number one trending topic.
Kenyans on X have now broadened the discourse to include things that are more than just cooking oil – now, Kenyans are saying that fuel might actually be cheaper in Ruiru (fuel prices have crossed the Ksh.200 mark for the first time in Kenya’s history) while others have also dragged in Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s tiger gaffe in Colombia.
Comedy started when X user Kianangih posted a photo of an abandoned fuel station road sign indicating low petrol and diesel prices and intimated that was the price of fuel in Ruiru.
Fuel prices in Ruiru.
Source: Moses Kuria pic.twitter.com/2WGolVCj9N
— Timoshenko (@Kianangih) September 15, 2023
It was a hilarious race to the bottom from there with every Kenyan on X asking the same question; “Nani ako Ruiru atuambie bei ya mafuta ni how much?”
Citizen TV’s Sam Gituku, from whose show the Ruiru comparisons cropped up, also jumped online to send out a reaction to someone claiming fuel was cheaper in Ruiru, saying, “I wish to dissociate myself from any claims that fuel is cheaper in Ruiru. But I know someone I could ask if need be! ”
Another user @ruthlessfocus also reacted to a video of Rigathi Gachagua inviting Colombians to come see ‘rare tigers in Kenya’, saying,” He’s not lying. Tigers are in Ruiru!”
