William Ruto

William Ruto Verified

current · President, Kenya · United Democratic Alliance

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William Ruto is Kenya's fifth President, a chicken-seller-turned-plant-ecologist who rode a hustler movement from the Kamagut roadside to State House in one of Africa's great political climbs. Elected Eldoret North MP in 1997, he mastered the inside game under Moi, ran the agriculture and higher education dockets in the grand coalition, then became the 2010 Constitution's first Deputy President on a joint ticket with Uhuru Kenyatta. When the handshake left him isolated, he recast himself as the outsider of bottom-up economics and won the 2022 election against the establishment that made him. In office he has pushed the housing levy, a universal health rollout and aggressive tax reform, drawing credit for boldness and street protests over the cost of living in equal measure. A University of Nairobi PhD in plant ecology, he remains the most relentless campaigner of his generation.

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Experience

Professional

  • President, Kenya

    United Democratic Alliance 2022, present

    current
  • Deputy President of Kenya

    Government of Kenya 2012-2021

    Kenya's first Deputy President under the 2010 Constitution, elected on a joint ticket with Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013 and re-elected in 2017. The pair's later falling-out set up the underdog campaign that won him the presidency in 2022.

  • Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology

    Government of Kenya 2009-2011

    Held the higher education, science and technology portfolio during the coalition government's final stretch, supervising university expansion before leaving to build the United Republican Party for the 2013 race.

  • Minister for Agriculture

    Government of Kenya 2007-2009

    Ran the agriculture docket in the grand-coalition cabinet formed after the 2007 election crisis, overseeing fertilizer subsidy programmes and the maize sector during a severe food-price squeeze before a 2010 reshuffle.

  • Assistant Minister for Home Affairs

    Government of Kenya 1997-2001

    First executive post after capturing the Eldoret North seat in 1997. Under President Moi he handled internal administration and security matters, learning government from the inside while still in his early thirties.

  • MP, Soy

    1996-2012

    Former Eldoret North

    former

Education

  • Master of Science in Plant Ecology

    University of Nairobi

    Returned to the University of Nairobi mid-career for graduate research in plant ecology, completing the degree in 2011 while a senior national politician and reviving the scientific track he had set aside for two decades.

  • Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Plant Ecology

    University of Nairobi

    Doctoral research on how human activity shapes plant diversity in the Saiwa swamp ecosystem of western Kenya, completed in 2018, making him the first sitting Deputy President to earn a PhD from a Kenyan public university.

  • Bachelor of Science in Botany and Zoology

    University of Nairobi

    Undergraduate science degree in botany and zoology, completed in 1990. He worked his way through university from a modest Kamagut upbringing and was a leader in Christian student groups, where his organizing talent first surfaced before politics.

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