Ruto No Longer Tolerating Lateness From Uhuru's Term

President William Ruto is continuing to make radical changes to State House and during state events from former President Uhuru Kenyatta's term.

Among those changes include restoring punctuality to events and to really any engagement within his administration, as cases of lateness were rampant under Uhuru's 10-year term.

In most cases, members of the Fourth Estate were kept waiting for hours during press conferences and addresses to the nation, with some events starting more than an hour later than the time announced to the public.

The frequent lateness morphed into a joke on Twitter whereby anytime State House would reveal the time an event was to begin, Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) would call it “State House time” or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), a time zone common in the United Kingdom (UK) which is two to three hours behind Kenyan time.

President William Ruto with the newly sworn-in Cabinet Secretaries at State House on October 27, 2022. /PCS

Just a few months into office, Ruto seems to have altered the culture at State House and enforced a no-nonsense policy on time.

For instance, journalists who were sent to State House to cover the swearing-in ceremony of 24 Cabinet Secretaries (CS) were notified that the event would start at 11 am. The event, according to the Nation, started 10 minutes earlier.

The president was also reported to be present for a Kenya Kwanza Parliamentary Group meeting at State House, which started at 7 am on the dot on Thursday morning, as announced.

As though that was not enough, some journalists lamented to Viral Tea that they were stranded outside one of the gates leading to the presidential residence, with security barring them from gaining entry despite them making desperate calls.

Despite them being late for the event, they were eventually let through. Immediately after the CSs took the oath of office, there was no room for them to spend time with their families at State House.

They were seen moving out and heading to their offices where some of their predecessors were ready to hand over the office to them.

Ruto's punctuality was also evident during the Mashujaa Day celebrations on Thursday, October 20 when the head of state also arrived at the Uhuru Gardens a few earlier than anticipated, catching his protocol officials pants down.

Another one of the changes Ruto's administration made from Uhuru was the simplicity in which a journalist and Kenyans stay up to date with matters concerning Ruto's development agenda, among others.

Many of the changes focused on the communications segment of the House on the hill, which started with the absence of the State House logo watermark, a prominent feature in Uhuru's photos capturing him in events within and outside of the country.

Up to now, no single photo shared by State House on its official social media pages has a watermark.

In his Executive Order No 1 of 2022, which he amended from Uhuru's Executive Order No. 1 of 2020 issued on January 14, 2020, the Presidential Strategic Communication Unit (PSCU) was done away with in Ruto's government as it was in Uhuru's term.

Ruto's communications department is now called the Presidential Communication Service (PCS), which will relay official communications from the Office of the President (OP).

David Mugonyi, who previously served as Ruto's communications director at the Office of the Deputy President, was promoted to Head of the PSC and serving alongside him is State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed.

But the most important change in Ruto's communications channels is live-streaming the president at key functions through social media channels, mainly Facebook and Twitter, where Ruto has a massive following.

The live streams are offered through the State House channels and Ruto's social media channels, just like how he tailored social media during his campaign trails before the August 9 elections to reach out to as many supporters as possible.

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta's photo with the watermark and President William Ruto's photo without. /VIRALTEAKE