Ruto slams Kenyans mocking his viral pledge to construct 750km Isiolo-Mandera road

President William Ruto has castigated Kenyans whom he accuses of mocking him over his promise to construct the 750km Isiolo-Mandera road.

The President says his administration is committed to delivering the project in due course. Deputy President Prof. Kithure Kindiki has been more specific, saying the road will be complete in under 2 and a half years.

President Ruto’s visit to Mandera County in the North Eastern region was used to make several promises to locals, among them a 750km stretch of road from Mandera to Isiolo that has become the butt of many jokes online, given an increasingly engaged youth in national matters.

“I was in Northern Kenya, and I did announce a major road artery that will be constructed from Isiolo through Wajir, Mandera, and many people think it is a joke. In this country, sometimes we take matters of life and death as if it is a joke,” Ruto said on Wednesday.

The Head of State’s announcement of that road project, and his mastery of the route it will follow, has largely informed the debate around it; that and a sense of cynicism.

“Tutatengeneza barabara itoke Mandera, ikuje Ramu, ikuje Garre, ikuje El-wak, ikuje Kobo, ikuje pale Kotulo, ikuje Tarbat, ipitie hapa Wajir, iende Samatan, iteremke Modogashe, ifike Isiolo, iende Nairobi,” Ruto said during the visit.

Social media has since experienced the makings of an online storm as the President's promise has been twisted into all manner of memes and videos, going viral especially on TikTok.

As some Kenyans, mostly the youth, criticise Ruto for making yet another promise, which they doubt he will keep, others have printed t-shirts with illustrations of that stretch of road, complete with the towns as mentioned by the President in his speech in the rally in Mandera.

On Wednesday, President Ruto who presided over the signing of contracts for mini-grids under Kenya off grid solar project in Nairobi, trained his guns on his doubters and those who mock him, urging Kenyans to take national matters seriously.

“I'm committed to delivering that 750-kilometre of road because, for a very long time, we have left Northern Kenya behind,” he said.

The President’s reaction comes just a day after his deputy, Prof. Kindiki, also launched another attack at the government’s online critics.

 “The person texting hajui Samata ni wapi au Kotulo, let them mock us but when 2027 comes and we go to account, we will use that road from Isiolo to Mandera and that part of the country will be opened up for economic transformation,” said Kindiki on Tuesday.

The two, however, gave conflicting figures on the number of contractors on site, with Kindiki saying 11 while President Ruto stated 7.

The delivery of that promise by the President, perhaps the only answer that could silence critics, as both the opposition and the clergy have pointed out that the Kenya Kwanza administration continues to suffer from trust and truth deficit. The road is about one and a half times the size of the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.