President William Ruto has revealed new details about the behind-the-scenes negotiations that shaped his broad-based government in 2024.
Speaking at State House in Nairobi on Monday, Ruto said the late opposition leader Raila Odinga opposed the appointment of a leader from the Luo Nyanza region to the key National Treasury docket.
Ruto made the comments as he received a comprehensive report on the Framework for Reparations for Victims of Human Rights Violations. He said he had to stand his ground to secure the finance portfolio for the region, arguing that the decision was necessary to break long-standing political stereotypes.
Recalling the intense consultations during a period of political turmoil, Ruto said Odinga had different plans for the crucial ministry.
“When it came to the formation of the broad-based government, I remember well my brother Raila Odinga had a different opinion on who should be the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury,” Ruto revealed.
The president said he refused Raila’s proposal to give the National Treasury portfolio to another region. He recalled telling him, “My brother, if there is one place I will defy you, it is that I am going to appoint a person from Luo Nyanza to be the first cabinet secretary or minister for Finance.”
Ruto said the slot later went to the then-Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) National Chairman, John Mbadi, who took charge of the National Treasury.
President Ruto framed his decision not as political betrayal but as a deliberate step to address historical prejudices and reduce ethnic divisions. He said some communities had long been shut out of certain government sectors through systematic profiling.
“Again, it was to correct a negative profiling of a whole community, that the economy belongs to certain people,” Ruto said.
He also compared Mbadi’s appointment to his controversial 2023 decision to appoint the late General Francis Ogolla as Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF). Ruto said his aim was to challenge the idea that certain positions were meant for particular groups.
“When I decided to appoint General Francis Ogolla to lead the Kenya Defence Forces, I was correcting the negative profiling that some positions are reserved for some people and some positions can never be occupied by others,” he said, calling the practice an injustice and a stigma on a whole community that needed urgent correction.
