El Chapo: Ruto acquires cheeky new nickname as Kenyans blast his one-million Chapatis promise

Ruto was on his second day of his development tour of Nairobi when, while at St. Teresa Girls Secondary School in Mathare, he made the pompous promise to the roaring crowd of students, appearing to assent to an appeal thrown his way by Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja.

Moments earlier, Sakaja had asked Ruto to help him purchase a chapati-making machine that could produce a million units daily to boost the city’s ‘Dishi Na County’ school feeding program - this is after he had asked the students what they would like to add to the menu, to which they said chapati.

"Over 300,000 children are benefiting from the program; that means we need a machine to produce a million chapatis every day. I have asked the President for it,” the county boss remarked.

President Ruto agreed to the request, telling the ecstatic students, “I have agreed to buy a chapati-making machine. Governor, your work is now finding where to buy it.”

Ruto's sweetened promise did not, however, please the majority of Kenyans, with many terming it a mindless initiative that would not necessarily improve the welfare of Nairobians - and Kenyans at large - and one that did not even feature as a critical necessity for high school students.

Many also called out the President for his penchant for misplaced priorities, blasting him too for reveling on trivial achievements and passing them off as major milestones in his administration.

X user Kabara said, "Chinese president launches new 20 bullet trains, 3 space stations and 5,000 km of expressway... Japanese president launches a nuclear power plant... Ibrahim Traore is building 50 level 5 hospitals in one year. William Ruto: I'll give a machine that can make 1 mirrion chapatis in a day."

Popular satirist and cartoonist Kibet Bull said, "They will also go for Irungu Kang'ata soon. This regime hates those who perform more than the president. Irungu Kang'ata is launching mobile dialysis hospitals while the president is launching Chapatis."

"How has a democracy like Kenya sunk so low? Serious nations are talking about technological advancements, Artificial Intelligence, infrastructural marvels and eradication of diseases while our president is lying to high school children in broad daylight! This man has lied to adults for two and a half years now he's lying to our children!" Martha Njeri lamented.

X user Ciku Yegon also chimed in, saying, "The economy is in shambles, healthcare is a mess, Education is crippled by underfunding, the Housing Fund is a scam, mothers are burying their sons, skittles are retailing at KES 140 but at least the president has promised a machine that makes 1 million chapatis!"

Some creative Kenyans went as far as branding Ruto 'El Chapo' - a name derived from the title of one of Mexico's most notorious narco barons and also, one which resonates with him due to chapati's popular street name, chapo.

"Is there a promise this man won't make? A lie he won't tell? A pledge he will ever fulfil? We are being lead by a schizophrenic and we really need to test the limits of Article 144," someone opined.

A Citizen Digital financial breakdown of the cost implications of producing one million chapatis everyday revealed that the government would be gobbling up as much as Ksh. 10 million daily, and a whopping Ksh. 2.5 billion annually, assuming it would require 40,000 packets of wheat flour and 20,000 litres of cooking oil to conjure up a million chapatis daily.

This is excluding the cost of transport, labour, distribution and other such related technicalities which would definitely push up the bill even higher.

Despite the recent pushback from Kenyans and even the clergy, who have been urging the President to simply work and refrain from dishing out promises every new day, Ruto appears to still harbour an unhealthy penchant for making roadside declarations - many of which, it has been proven, have failed to materialise, weeks, months and even years later.

Chapati-making machines, also called roti makers, are billed as a simple means of making the dish in industrial quantities by feeding them with the ingredients.

They cost upwards of Ksh.150,000 and vary by output, with some producing up to 2,000 chapatis per hour.