The start of William Ruto’s presidential term in Kenya now faces the country’s difficult economic crisis, and the local press is questioning whether the new president can really fulfill the promises he made during the election campaign, built on the need to start a mighty reform process to revitalize the economy in the first hundred days of his rule. A commitment that appears not to be easy to achieve, and one that is likely to quickly fuel a new phase of political conflict (https://www.theafricareport.com/240627/kenya-can-ruto-turn-around-the-economy-in-100-days/?utm_source=newsletter_tar_daily&utm_campaign=newsletter_tar_daily_14_09_2022&utm_medium=email&utm_content=top_stories_article_2).
One of William Ruto’s first moves on the economic front was the decision to revoke several subsidies in the fuel sector, causing the immediate effect of a wave of price increases, while it is not yet clear how the president wants to proceed on the subsidies in the food sector, which he had described in the election campaign as costly and inefficient (https://www.dire.it/15-09-2022/789901-in-kenya-stop-ai-sussidi-per-i-carburanti-e-il-caro-benzina-e-da-record/).
Important news was also reported on the foreign policy front, where William Ruto appointed his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta as peace envoy for the Horn of Africa and the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The announcement of the appointment appears to have been formalized in the aftermath of the TPLF’s acceptance by Tigrinya’s governing forces to engage in cease-fire talks with the federal government, paving the way for a more effective mediation role for Kenya (https://www.dire.it/16-09-2022/790862-lex-presidente-del-kenya-inviato-di-pace-per-tigray-e-kivu-borrell-lue-lo-sosterra/).
Finally, a stir was caused in the aftermath of the presidential inauguration ceremony by President Ruto’s deletion of a Twitter message in which he had in the past reiterated Kenya’s traditional position on the issue of Western Sahara and recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The cancellation, according to local press reports, came shortly after the new president met with Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, who was in Nairobi to attend the inauguration ceremony (https://www.theafricareport.com/241794/kenya-morocco-ruto-tweet-ends-decades-old-policy-on-western-sahara-or-does-it/?utm_source=newsletter_tar_daily&utm_campaign=newsletter_tar_daily_16_09_2022&utm_medium=email&utm_content=top_stories_article_1).
