Gospel singer and presidential hopeful Reuben Kigame has warned President William Ruto that hatred, taxes, misplaced priorities and a westernised approach to key issues will bring down the government.
“These are the four things that can bring your downfall sooner than later and the sooner you turn around and do the right thing the better,” he said in an open letter to the President.
In the open letter, Mr Kigame proposed a survival strategy to the president. He recommended austerity measures aimed at reducing government spending.
Mr Kigame, who is also a gospel singer and evangelist, said the 2023 Finance Bill was a special purpose vehicle to overtax Kenyans. In the strategy, Mr Kigame wants the President to stop his international travel spree as well as those of other government officials until at least July 2024.
“Let those you want to meet come to you or meet them virtually. Start holding parliamentary and government meetings at State House or Parliament Buildings or have virtual meetings. Not in private hotels,” he said.
He also wants the president to bring back trillions stashed in foreign bank accounts and sack the 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries (CAS), saying ‘we don’t need them’. He also proposed the abolition of other “unnecessary government positions such as the First Lady, Second Lady and Spouse to the Prime Cabinet Secretary”, describing them as a burden.
He urged a halt to proposed new taxes “but instead reinstate subsidies on fuel and UNGA to buy time for survival and for you to move from short term to long term planning that you have for the people of Kenya”.
On the proposed 3 per cent housing levy, Mr Kigame said “you cannot force people to have houses they did not ask for”. He said people had said food was their priority.
“The more you insist that they must have houses before food, the more your motives become clear. It is not the houses you want the people of Kenya to have; it is what you and your friends will get financially from building houses for Kenyans by force,” he said.
Mr Kigame said the issue could lead to the impeachment of both the president and parliament, saying ‘you cannot take money from workers by force in the name of building them houses’.
Mr Kigame challenged anyone to show him a single nation that has become economically stable and prosperous by impoverishing its citizens to the point of having no income and then imposing heavy taxes on them.
He also warned the President that the impending doom was not something that could be reversed by using the instruments of power. He warned that trying to force things through ‘will only hasten the doom I am talking about’.
Mr Kigame said the president should learn to listen more to the common people than to his advisers in order to save himself and his government from imminent ruin.
Mr Kigame, who was barred by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) from contesting the 9 August presidential election, said the president was simply destroying the country.
Mr Kigame fears that the president is being advised by fanatics who are misleading him into thinking that his rule so far is good and on course.
“I know that you are surrounded by many friends who may tell you that things are going well in the country and that things are moving for the best. I am sharing this letter from a citizen’s perspective to help you turn around and save yourself, your team and the nation at large from destruction,” Mr Kigame wrote.
Instead of leading the country to the Promised Land, “you have been systematically destroying it, so that with every dawn, we are confronted with another layer of destruction”.
Mr Kigame feared that the president was being advised by fanatics who were misleading him into believing that his rule so far was good and on course.
“I know that you are surrounded by many friends who may be telling you that things in the country are fine and moving towards the best. I am sharing this letter from a citizen’s perspective to help you turn around and save yourself, your team and the nation at large from destruction,” Mr Kigame wrote.
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Instead of leading the country to the Promised Land, “you have been systematically destroying it, so that with every dawn, we are confronted with another layer of destruction”.
Mr Kigame fears that if the situation is not arrested soon, “we will not have a country, but you can be sure of this, we will not have you as president either”.
Mr Kigame, who has since thrown his lot in with the anti-government agenda led by the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party, said his letter was only meant to state the case of the people.
Mr Kigame complained that President Ruto’s government was suffering from unchecked pride.
“Pride does not come before fall. Pride is the fall itself. It is pride in the scriptures that led to the fall of the brightest angel, Lucifer the shining one and Nebuchadnezzar the president of Babylon,” he warned.
He added that pride brought down the biblical Rehoboam, son of Israel’s wisest king, Solomon, by causing him to reject the advice of godly elders in favour of that of his closest youthful associates.
At one point, Rehoboam is recorded in the Scriptures as telling his people, “My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions”.
Rehoboam’s reign ended prematurely and the kingdom of Israel was sadly split in two – capturing the Azimio moment where the debate about secession began.
“These are the kind of sentiments you and your friends are instilling in Kenyans,” he charged.
He lamented the government’s relentless display of unforgiveness and open practice of revenge, especially against former President Uhuru Kenyatta, his family and the people who worked for and with him.
“Your deputy, Mr Rigathi Gachagua, is doing the same, implying that the top leadership of our country cannot reconcile the nation. This tit-for-tat, tooth-for-tooth and eye-for-an-eye attitude will never work and will leave the country both toothless and blind,” he said.
He noted that Mr Gachagua “said with a straight face that your government belongs to the shareholders and that only those who voted for it have primacy and priority. You did not come out to correct this notion, implying that you agree with him”.
Mr Kigame said: “This attitude of revenge, favouritism and crony capitalism, coupled with your open ethnic appointments, will not allow you to survive as a leader. Believe me. Unless you change this, the nation called Kenya will spit you out as a leader. It did not work in the past. It cannot work here. It will never work. It will take you down unless you change.”
He urged President Ruto to realise that his position was like that of a father in a nuclear family.
“You are the head, on top of everyone and everything and you cannot go higher, so it is about how you lead all those below you. As a father, at the end of the day, there are no good and bad children. It is about helping the bad children to be better and making sure that the home is livable,” he said.
He said the nuclear family that is the Kenya Kwanza Alliance government should realise that “you cannot prove how much of a father you are as president by destroying the house you all live in and spreading hatred and animosity in the home”.
Mr Kigame said it was the duty of the president to seek reconciliation among the people and between the people and their God.
“You are overtaxing your fellow citizens while spending the proceeds extravagantly… this cannot lead to Kenya’s prosperity,” he wrote.
He went on to warn that the president was being lured into an economic crisis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), “who are insisting that you implement excessive taxation and reckless privatisation”.
Mr Kigame said the Kenya Kwanza government’s priorities were completely wrong. “Your obsession with implementing global policies and programmes at the expense of our national sovereignty and integrity will end your leadership,” he said.
He added: “In the process, you have made our country a dumping ground for foreign goods, including maize, instead of empowering our local farmers,” he said.
Mr Kigame said: “I am writing this letter openly in love. I do not wish you to fail. I want you to succeed. Hence the warnings. Better are the blows of a friend than the kisses of an enemy.”
