President William Ruto’s Senior Advisor in the Council of Economic Advisors Moses Kuria has warned against centralised and overreaching leadership.
Taking to his X account on Wednesday, July 1, 2025, Kuria reminded Kenyans, especially the youth, about the traditional Kikuyu leadership structure, which he said was never dictatorial. According to him, Kikuyu society was historically organised as a confederacy, not a monarchy.
“There was never a central ruler who had authority over everyone. Leaders like Waiyaki wa Hinga, Mbira, Nderi, Karuri, and Wamgome wa Ihura each had their areas of jurisdiction. They respected the territorial boundaries of fellow leaders,” Kuria explained.
He emphasised that the Kikuyu people were strongly opposed to any leader who attempted to wield unchecked power.
“Nothing annoyed the Kikuyu of yore like some over-reaching, over-arching tin gods,” Kuria said.
Adding;
“Kai ari we uthugumaga tukahanda ? They would ask any Napoleonic wannabes.”
Loosely translated as;
“Who made you our ruler?” or “Who gave you the authority to rule over us?”
Kuria clarified that his post was meant to help students preparing for their GHC (Geography, History, and Civics) exams later this year.
“The purpose of this post is nothing but to prepare students who will sit for GHC exams later in the year,” he said.
His comments come just a day after he proposed a major review of Kenya’s Constitution. In another post shared on Monday night, June 30, 2025, Kuria argued that Kenya’s history of political handshakes and alliances has failed to bring about lasting peace and stability.
He outlined a series of major political coalitions that have shaped the country’s politics since the early 1990s, beginning with the 1993 cooperation between then-President Daniel Arap Moi and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
He also pointed to the 1999 KANU-NDP merger between Moi and Raila Odinga, the 2008 Nusu Mkate Grand Coalition between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, the 2018 handshake between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, and most recently, the 2024 broad-based agreement between President William Ruto and Raila Odinga.
According to Kuria, while these alliances helped defuse political tensions in the short term, they lacked long-term solutions.
He argued that these power-sharing deals are temporary fixes that only postpone deeper structural reforms needed to unite the country.
“We are avoiding the inevitable. We need a constitutional dispensation that will guarantee Kenya long-term sustainable peace and stability without these personal deals,” he said.
