Ruto Ranked Highest Paid President Worldwide By GDP Ratio
According to a revision by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) in June 2023 for state officers, President Ruto’s monthly gross retainer went up from Ksh1,443,750 to Ksh1,650,000.
Marvin Chege 
Kenya's President William Ruto has been identified as the highest-paid world leader relative to the economic capacity of his country. Yes, the highest-paid world leader.
This was revealed in a report recently released by Statista dubbed "What are world leaders getting paid?" which revealed that Ruto's compensation sees him put on the frontline of world leaders when adjusted for their countries' economic performance.
According to a revision by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) in June 2023 for state officers, President Ruto’s monthly gross retainer went up from Ksh1,443,750 to Ksh1,650,000.
According to the report, his annual earnings of Ksh19,800,000 translate to 1,993 per cent of Kenya’s per-capita GDP, which stood at Ksh811,615 in 2023. The report dated September 27, 2024 notes that this percentage highlights the significant disparity between his salary and the average economic output per citizen.
President William Ruto's ranking in highest-earning presidents worldwide per capita GDP. /STATISTA
While these figures are a far cry from how much heads of state from economic superpowers earn, they are still astonishingly high considering Kenya’s per-capita GDP in 2023. Ruto’s annual salary of Ksh19,800,000 is the equivalent of almost 2,000% of his country's per-capita GDP (1993%).
"Kenyan President William Ruto is the biggest earner, bringing in the equivalent of almost 2,000 per cent of his country's per-capita GDP in 2023. Based on 2023 average exchange rates, Ruto made the equivalent of $126,000 last year. This is in stark contrast to Kenya's GDP per capita of just $6,300 annually," reads the report.
This dynamic puts President Ruto in a league of his own in first place in the tier of best salaries as a share of 2023 GDP per capita, with Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who took office in 2024 coming in second with his annual salary of Ksh217,718,946 (USD 1.69 million) being the equivalent of 1,158% of his country’s per-capita GDP.
Wong’s hefty payout also happens to make him the world’s best-earning world leader in monetary value.
Interestingly, the top five in the list of best-paid heads of state relative to their country’s economic prowess are dominated by African leaders. For instance, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa were ranked with salaries exceeding 1000 per cent of their respective countries’ GDP per capita, 1087 per cent and 1053 per cent, respectively.
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo ranks fifth, earning 651 per cent of Ghana’s GDP per capita.
On June 30, 2023, President Ruto rejected SRC's plans to increase his salary and that of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua by 14 per cent but instead focused on reducing the wage gap between low and high-income earners.
He turned down SRC's proposal to hike his own salary, alluding to an internationally recognised system, and instructed SRC to develop to cut down the gap between civil servants' salaries before his own pay wage is increased.
"I have told SRC that there is an internationally accepted formula called compression formula. Until they come back to me and say they have met that formula, our salary increment will wait. But for the other people, the state officers, myself, my deputy, ministers, PSs, MPs and others. That salary would remain the way it is. Let it remain the way it is until SRC gives us international best practices because we need to reduce the gap," Ruto ordered.
A year later, amidst the outrage from Kenyans over the SRC’s proposed salary hike for state officers, the SRC froze the upward salary review for all state officers following consultations with the National Treasury. On July 3, 2024, Commission Chairperson Lyn Mengich termed the recent budget cuts and the current economic situation in the country as the reasons for the decision.
Beforehand, President Ruto directed the National Treasury to review the Gazette Notice dated August 9, 2023, from the SRC regarding the remuneration & benefits for State officers in the Executive of the National Government, the Senate and the National Assembly, in light of the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 and the fiscal constraints experienced during the 2024/25 financial year.
