Ruto: Preaching Pan-Africanism, dialling the West
Critics have lambasted Ruto's decision to seek counsel from Western powers to solve continental problems instead of engaging his African counterparts.
Kenyan President William Ruto has built a reputation as a vocal advocate of African solutions to African problems, yet his recent admission that he consulted French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the escalating crisis in eastern DRC has sparked sharp criticism across the continent.
At a time when France is being systematically pushed out of several African nations—most notably in the Sahel—Ruto openly divulged about discussing the Great Lakes conflict with Macron.
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His remarks have raised questions about whether his Pan-Africanist rhetoric is a genuine commitment or merely political posturing. South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) International Affairs Editor Sophie Mokoena, in a scathing critique on Thursday, lambasted Ruto's decision to seek counsel from Western powers instead of engaging his African counterparts.
"Belgium and France were directly implicated in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. For a head of state to call the French president—at a time when France is losing its grip on the continent, especially in the Sahel—rather than consulting his peers, what are you communicating?" Mokoena questioned.
She argued that engaging regional or at least continental leaders should have been Ruto's first instinct and "not dialling Paris and Washington when all hell broke loose."
Ironically, just days before this revelation, Ruto had hosted a retreat of African leaders in Nairobi to push for African Union (AU) reforms, lamenting the AU's inefficiencies and pledging to spearhead reforms to make it "fit for purpose."
President William Ruto when he hosted Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló, Ethiopia President Taye Atske Selassie, Ghana President John Dramani Mahama, Comoros President Azali Assoumani, African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat during a retreat of the Extended Bureau on the Implementation of Institutional Reforms of the African Union, State House, Nairobi on January 25, 2025. (PCS)
His push for institutional change at the AU follows in the footsteps of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who previously led AU reform efforts before stepping down in February 2023.
Kagame cited "hypocrisy and a lack of progress" as reasons for quitting the initiative—an indictment of African leaders who publicly champion reforms but fail to back them with action.
Broader trend
Ruto's latest contradiction is part of a broader trend: African leaders who speak of self-reliance but turn to Western capitals when "crises erupt".
Before the Russia-Africa Summit, he criticised global powers for treating Africa as a pawn in geopolitical struggles and accused "big countries" of mishandling African leaders at summits.
He famously declared that he would "not attend a meeting where one man speaks and the rest of us just listen."
President William Ruto during the African Union Extraordinary Summit on Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme in Kampala, Uganda on January 11, 2024. (Photo: PCS)
Yet, he was among the first African leaders to fly to Rome for the Italian-Africa Summit, despite previously insisting that Africa should only engage as a bloc through the AU.
His 2023 comments at the Mo Ibrahim Governance Forum, where he decried how African heads of state are "herded onto buses like schoolchildren" when attending global summits, has appeared ironical —given his willingness to attend similar gatherings.
Ruto's latest outreach to Paris and Washington on the DRC crisis only adds to the growing perception that his Pan-Africanist stance is more of a "performance than principle".
High-stakes test ahead
The timing of this controversy could not be worse for Ruto. The AU's annual summit is just weeks away, where high-stakes elections will determine the next AU Commission Chairperson.
Ruto has thrown his weight behind former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga's candidacy, in what is shaping up to be a fiercely contested race.
His credibility as a Pan-Africanist will be under scrutiny—not just in campaign rooms but also in the corridors of Addis Ababa, where African leaders will remember his willingness to dial Western leaders while preaching the gospel of African independence.
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